Abraham Shek Lai-him GBS JP or Abraham Razack (Chinese: 石禮謙; born Razack Ebrahim Abdul; 24 June 1945) is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (Legco), representing the real estate and construction industry in a functional constituency seat. He is a member of the political grouping Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong in Legco. He graduated from the University of Sydney in Australia.[citation needed]

Abraham Shek
石禮謙
Shek in 2019
Member of the Legislative Council
In office
1 October 2000 – 31 December 2021
Preceded byRonald Arculli
Succeeded byLoong Hon-biu
ConstituencyReal Estate and Construction
Personal details
Born
Razack Ebrahim Abdul

(1945-06-24) 24 June 1945 (age 78)
Macau
Political partyBusiness and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong
Professional Forum
SpouseLisa Har
Alma materUniversity of Sydney (BA, PGDE)
OccupationCompany Director
Abraham Shek
Traditional Chinese石禮謙
Simplified Chinese石礼谦

Razack is a businessman and former chief executive of the Land Development Corporation (now Urban Renewal Authority).[1] He is a director of numerous large corporates, including China Resources Cement Holdings Ltd.[2]

Political stance edit

Long a staunch pro-Beijing supporter of the Hong Kong Government, Shek surprised observers in October 2019 by siding with protestors in calling for an independent inquiry into police suppression of the then widespread pro-democracy protests, and in criticising the government's failure to recognise the need to address community concerns, particularly those among youth.[3]

In March 2021, after FTU president Stanley Ng said that the government had allowed a "property hegemony" to allow developers to benefit greatly from increased property prices, Shek defended developers and said such "Cultural Revolution-style" criticism of developers would not fix the housing issues.[4]

In April 2021, Shek opposed a bill that would introduce a vacancy tax on new units that were built but not sold after 12 months, a tax that would punish developers for leaving empty units unsold or unlet.[5]

Positions held edit

Chairman, Public Accounts Committee, Legislative Council of HKSAR since October 2012,
Chairman, English Schools Foundation since May 2015
Honorary Fellow of The Education University of Hong Kong
Honorary Fellow of The University of Hong Kong
Honorary Fellow of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Honorary Fellow of Lingnan University (Hong Kong)

References edit

  1. ^ Three Land Development Corporation members re-appointed Archived 11 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Webb-site Who's Who Database". Webb-site. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  3. ^ "Hong Kong gov't should form independent probe into police conduct at protests, says pro-Beijing lawmaker Abraham Shek". Hong Kong Free Press. 30 October 2019.
  4. ^ "Scathing criticism of Hong Kong developers by union heavyweight akin to Cultural Revolution: lawmaker | Apple Daily". Apple Daily 蘋果日報 (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). Retrieved 26 March 2021.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ "Developers, analysts warn against trying to solve housing crisis with vacancy tax". South China Morning Post. 15 April 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
Legislative Council of Hong Kong
Preceded by Member of Legislative Council
Representative for Real Estate and Construction
2000–2021
Succeeded by
Preceded by Senior Member in Legislative Council
2020–2021
Succeeded by
Order of precedence
Preceded by
Leung Yiu-chung
Member of the Legislative Council
Hong Kong order of precedence
Member of the Legislative Council
Succeeded by
Joseph Lee
Member of the Legislative Council