Attorney-General that Professor Gibson had seen only police photographs and
י
rts, and clearly said so at the Inquest, the Attorney-General, an expert in self- justification, said he meant that it was Dr. Frederick Ong who had seen the body and was satisfied with the suicide theory. Obviously the Attorney-General had not done his homework because the record of the Inquest stated clearly that Professor Ong too had not seen the body, only police photographs and reports. We members of the public cannot escape with errors of such magnitude, but we are not under the protection of Colonialism and have no extra-territorial rights to do or say what we wish.
But the Attorney-General was not to escape so easily. The foreman of the jury challenged him for overturning the verdict of a jury and even called for his resignation. The press and most of the public stood solidly behind the foreman of the Jury.
Then came a turning point in the MacLennan affair. The Senior Inspector who had been asked by the SIU to incite MacLennan to crime by taking boys to his quarters, could stand no more. He came surreptitiously to see me. "A man is dead," he said. "I had hoped to keep my job, but how can I live with my conscience unless I speak up and say what happened?: Up to that point I had refrained from giving the Facts about what I had called "hounding MacLennan to his death", out of respect for the Chief Inspector whose job, and perhaps his life, was at stake. But now he gave me the go-ahead. Why don't you speak up?" he urged. "Sooner of later the facts must be know, and the sooner the better."
then decided to hold a press conference, to point out the fallacies
The tension was breaking him.
of what the Attorney-General had said in his conference, and to describe the way in which plans had been laid to entrap MacLennan. I did not name the Chief Inspector, who then came to be known as Inspector XYZ.
9
The Attorney-General reacted quickly. He said that Inspector XYZ had been interviewed and denied any pressure to frame up MacLennan. He was playing with words. The Inspector had used the term "set up, and he had not denied that he had been pressured. Then suddenly the Chief Inspector's name was made known by the law officer who had first brought the case to the attention of the Attorney-General about three months before MacLennan's death. Once named, the Chief Inspector then took up the cudgels, and challenged the Attorney-General, stating that he had been misrepresented, that in fact he had been asked to set up MacLennan. He was given permission by the Commissioner of Police to speak up, yet a few months later he was dismissed from the Force. He was due to have his contract renewed, but was then told that he had a choice: either he would resign of his own accord with all the benefits due to him, or he would be sacked without anything at all. It was Hobson's choice, and he agreed to resign; but told the public that he had done so under pressure. That was the reward of an honest, conscientious officer who spoke up because of prin- ciple. On the other hand, another Inspector with a continuous record for heavy-handed tactics, one who was under investigation but escaped under the amnesty for corrupt civil servants, and involved too in MacLennan's case, remains in his job. No wonder Hong Kong's Police Force is jokingly called "The best police force that money can buy,' The best ones do not reign for long in Hong Kong. And John MacLennan was pronounced by all who knew him as one of the best police, but money could not