Denny Huang

Dr. Denny Mong-hwa Huang (July 1920 – 1 August 2007) was a Hong Kong doctor and politician. He was elected member of the Urban Council of Hong Kong from 1967 to 1986 and Hong Kong deputy to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1986 to 1998.

Early life

Dr. Huang was born in Shanghai in 1921. He traveled around China when he was young and spoke different dialects such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Sichuanese and Hunanese. He was educated at the West China Union College in Chengdu, Sichuan Province and got his Doctor of Medicine from the State University of New York in 1945. After he returned to China, he assisted Dr. Li Yan'an to establish the Ministry of Health in 1945 when he worked and taught at the Guangzhou Central Hospital. He moved to Hong Kong in 1948 before the Chinese Communists took over the mainland.

Public career

Dr. Huang worked for the medical department in the Hong Kong Government for about nine years from 1948 to 1954 before he went to the United Kingdom to study pulmonology at the University of Wales which funded by the Sino-British Fellowship Trust. When he was in London, Dr. Huang represented the Hong Kong Government in the British Commonwealth Health and Tuberculosis Conference. and studied general medicine at the University of Edinburgh until he returned to Hong Kong in 1956. He resigned from the government and started his private practice.

Dr. Huang was the President of the Chinese Christian Universities Alumni Association and became member of the council of the Chung Chi College. He was also President of the Hong Kong Medical Association and medical advisor to the Hong Kong Teachers' Association. With the nominations by the education and church leaders, Dr. Huang ran for the elected seat in the Urban Council as an Independent in the 1967 Urban Council election. He was successfully elected to the with the second highest votes just after Elsie Elliott.

Urban Councillor

Constitutional reforms

Dr. Huang was an open critic of the colonial rule and government's policies during his service in the Urban Council. He had demanded the government to open elected seats in the Executive and Legislative Councils and expand the power of the Urban Council. In 1968, Elsie Elliott, Hilton Cheong-Leen threatened to resign from the Urban Council as a protest to the limited power of the Council.

In 1976 when Governor Murray MacLehose appointed eight new unofficial members to the Legislative Council, including Hilton Cheong-Leen from the Urban Council. Dr. Huang criticised the system as "backward". He argued that the unofficial members had all been members from the vested interests. Although the many of the new appointed members were from different sectors but he doubted that their views would be valued as much as the members of the vested interests. Even the unofficial member from the Urban Council was appointed by the Governor but not elected among the Urban Councillors, which Huang and other elected Councillors had demanded for years. He denounced the government of using opposition from the Beijing regime as an excuse to refuse creating elected seats. In fact, the government was using the Beijing's unchanged policies towards Hong Kong to reinforce the colonial rule.

Dr. Huang also criticised the limited power and budget of the District Boards created in 1982, as he claimed they were merely advisory bodies. Dr. Huang suggested Hong Kong should adopt the model of the Greater London Council, by putting District Boards directly under the Urban Council which the District Boards would have the power to execute the responsibilities of the Urban Council with a larger budget.

Social policies

Dr. Huang frequently commented on government's health services and policies. He suggested founding a medical school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in response to the shortage of doctors in Hong Kong. He also urged the government to set up a licentiate examination for the Non-Commonwealth trained medical practitioners.

Dr. Huang was the leading figure of the Chinese Language Movements in the 1960s and 70s. He was critical of the discriminatory language policy as English was the only official language in the colony but was not understood by majority of the Hong Kong Chinese residents. During his chairmanship at the Hong Kong Chinese Education Promotion Committee, Dr. Huang advocated for recognising Chinese to have the same legal status as English, which was adopted by the government in 1974. Together with civil organsiations such as the Hong Kong Federation of Students, the Hong Kong Chinese Education Promotion Committee co-founded the Joint Committee for Chinese Language Movement in November 1978 to lead the second wave of Chinese Language Movement which aimed at raising the social status of Chinese language and promote Chinese teaching. Dr. Huang urged for mother-tongue teaching in school, Chinese translations of the Hong Kong laws and the training of the Chinese-English translators.

Between 1971 and 1976, Dr. Huang was also the Chairman of the Environment Hygiene Select Committee and also Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign Committee, which was launched in 1972 with the aim to generate public concern of environmental cleanliness as the basis of civic pride.

During his office in the Urban Council, he had proposed some very progressive ideas. He even called for legalising prostitution by setting up a red light district miles away from the urban area, which was seen as radical in the conservative society in the 1960s. He believed that by regulating prostitution, it could prevent women in young age entering the industry, fight against the triad activities and also better control the sexually transmitted diseases. He also called for further promotion of sex education to prevent sexual violence, sexually transmitted diseases and contribute to eugenics and healthy marriage life. Furthermore, Dr. Huang agreed legalisation of abortion and homosexuality. He stated that if homosexual behaviours should not be criminal if the both parties were consent. Legalising homosexuality would prevent blackmailing, although he believed that homosexuality should not be encouraged. He was a strong advocate for capital punishment in Hong Kong, suggesting the Hong Kong Government not to follow the United Kingdom which suspended death penalty in 1965 and carried out penalty in Hong Kong for deterrent effect.

On 31 January 1977, Dr. Huang organised a public assembly at the Victoria Park against the increase of rates. Thousands of people showed up on that day. Dr. Huang demanded cancellation of the unreasonable valuations in 1976 and reevaluations of the properties. Eventually, Financial Secretary C. P. Haddon-Cave made concessions by setting the limits on the rates increase in his budget in March.

1967 Leftist riots

During the Leftist riots of 1967, Dr. Huang supported the government to maintain law and order stating that the riots were purely political and threatened the welfare of the Hong Kong residents and labours. However, he expressed his worries to the death penalty sentence to the bombers as suggested by Kan Yuet-keung, unofficial member of the Executive and Legislative Councils. Dr. Huang expressed that there were many rioters who planted bombs on the streets were only children who might have been used to do such acts. He was also opposed to Hilton Cheong-Leen's suggestion to publicly hang the convicted rioters.

1977 ICAC amnesty

In 1977, the investigations of the newly established Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) into Hong Kong Police provoked the anxiety within the Police Force. On 28 October 1977, a group of about 40 police officers stormed into the ICAC Operations Department Headquarters in Hutchison House. On 5 November 1977, Governor Murray MacLehose announced a partial amnesty for the offences committed before 1 January 1977. Dr. Danny Huang expressed his disappointment to the Governor's amnesty, stating that although an amnesty was inevitable, the government had lost its prestige in the way it was forced to announce the amnesty so hastily under pressure. After the amnesty, the Attorney General John Hobley kept dropping charges against the suspects might also damage the judiciary system. He stated that the ICAC had lost the trust of the people after the incident and urged to chase after the corrupted high officials to clear the ICAC's bad images of evasion and racial prejudice.

Running for chairman and retirement

When the Hong Kong Housing Authority was established in 1972, the power of public housing managements was transferred to the new body. Dr. Huang became the Chairman of the Housing Committee in the new body.

In 1981, Dr. Huang contested the Chairmanship of the Urban Council against Hilton Cheong-Leen after the former Chairman A. de O. Sales decided not to run for re-election. Dr. Huang failed to win the seat with 7 to 14 votes.

After almost 20 years in the Urban Council, Dr. Huang decided not to seek for re-election in the coming Urban Council election in 1986, stating that he was disappointed to the limited power of the Urban Council. He complained that the district-based constituencies which replaced the single territory-wide constituency in the 1983 Urban Council election produced "small councillors" who only cared about their own districts but the interest of whole Hong Kong.

For his long time services, he was made Justice of the Peace in 1982 and the Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1986.

Sino-British negotiations

Dr. Huang was one of the earliest leaders in Hong Kong supported the Government of the People's Republic of China to resume the Chinese sovereignty in Hong Kong after 1997. On 25 October 1981, Dr. Huang flew to Beijing to met with Liao Chengzhi, the then Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office at the People's Great Hall. He was informed by Liao that the Beijing government would resume its sovereignty on Hong Kong as well as the power of administration. Liao also told Huang that Beijing government would assist Hong Kong to maintain its development, prosperity and stability.

In November 1982 when Dr. Huang met with Liao again in Beijing, he proposed making Hong Kong a free city with high autonomy for a period of 40 years. Furthermore, he proposed the suggestions for the future of Hong Kong including the current laws and industrial and commercial regulations remained unchanged; full elected Executive, Legislative and Urban Councils and District Boards; Chinese Army would not station in Hong Kong and maintain order with only police force; Beijing would not interference into Hong Kong internal affairs except for defence and diplomacy; Hong Kong laws remained unchanged and Supreme Court of Hong Kong remained the highest court in the territory; banknotes continued to be issued by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and the Standard Chartered Bank; considered leasing the Tamar to the Royal Navy for supplies and repairs. In the Sino-British negotiations later, many of Dr. Huang's suggestions were put into the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

On 27 September 1983 when he met with Ji Pengfei, Liao's successor as the Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, Dr. Huang proposed a Constitution for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to build confidence of the Hong Kong people and asked for its guarantee of the residents who disagreed with socialism could still have the right to stay, work and the manage Hong Kong affairs. Dr. Huang believed that the upholding of rule of law would ease the anxiety of the Hong Kong people. By that he urged the Hong Kong Government to raise the democratic consciousness and increase elected seats in the government.

Dr. Huang was subsequently co-opted by Beijing to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference as a Hong Kong deputy in March 1986 and served until 1998. He died on 1 August 2007. He had lived at No. 24 Somerset Road, Kowloon Tong.