Helping out with a major school construction project, writing books and producing a CD on religious music are the short-term plans of former Kowloon East Regional Commander (RC KE) Mak Man-poon, who proceeded on pre-retirement leave in February.

Mr Mak at a public function

To Mr Mak, retirement is merely the beginning of another stage of life - a stage of pursuing continuous learning and self-enhancement.

"One should keep oneself occupied during retirement, never stop learning and do something meaningful!" he said during an interview with OffBeat.

Mr Mak said he had not yet firmed up any long-term plans, but definitely would not idle away his time. In fact, he already has enough in his hands to keep himself busy for the next few years.

Church work

A devout Christian, Mr Mak is right now heavily involved in volunteer work for his church, the Evangelical Free Church of China. He chairs the church's Liaison Committee, and serves on a preparatory committee for a $200 million school construction project. With education and life-long learning to his fore, Mr Mak will be very pleased when the school starts intake of both primary and secondary students in September 2006.

Mr Mak beamed with pride when he elaborated on the school project.

"The school is a major project of my church which is already operating a hospital, a children's home, as well as elderly and youth centres. The school will be built with an award-winning non-standard design of the Education Department. It will have a 'Z' shape building with the primary section and secondary section on each end, as well as common teaching staff facilities in the middle.

"With accommodation for about 2,000 students, the school will put emphasis on life value, multiple wisdom, creativity and social services," said Mr Mak.

While the Government will foot the construction bill, the Evangelical Free Church will still have to raise $30 million to get the school project off the ground, and Mr Mak is also expected to assist in planning and organising various fund-raising activities in the next few years.

Besides his own church, Mr Mak has a long association with the Enoch Christian Fellowship Hong Kong Police since its inception in the late 70's, and has actively supported its activities. He had regularly joined colleagues at Enoch's weekly fellowship meetings held at various stations to study how to apply the Holy Scriptures in their work, families and life.

Book writing

Despite his heavy workload in church, Mr Mak hopes to find time to pursue "something that I like to do": writing books and producing a CD on religious music. His interest in the CD is understandable because he himself, his wife, his son and daughter-in-law are long-standing members of their church's choir.

As regard book writing, Mr Mak has three books to his credit, namely "Christianity in the Space Age", "Spiritual Leadership" and "Emails to My Children - A Sharing of Love".

"Christianity in the Space Age" probes the impact of the Space Age on Christianity; "Spiritual Leadership" studies the application of leadership theories in management of church work; and "Emails to My Children" publishes 38 of Mr Mak's emails to his son and daughter working or studying overseas.

In the emails, Mr Mak shared with his children his views and experience of various issues, including work, family, behaviour, studies, entertainment, life and life value, etc.

In a foreword published in the book, the Rev. Chan Yat-wah said Mr Mak has projected the image of a loving father who has exuded abundant love and care for his children, and has taken time from hectic work to maintain regular communication with them.

In his own foreword, Mr Mak said he had sent the emails to share with his children his experience and views, and explain the meaning of life so that they can find the proper direction in tackling difficulties in life, work and faith. "In doing so, I have derived immense pleasure and learned three valuable lessons - one should never stop learning, do not dwell on the past and truth is eternal," he added.

Mr Mak hopes that his book would make people see the important need of communicating with their children in their quest for worldly gains.

"As police officers, we should possess the virtues of honesty, integrity, kindness, as well as industry and thrift. These are exactly what the Bible has preached," he noted.

Memorable events

Having witnessed the Force's many changes and improvements, and having played his roles and made contributions in the process, naturally there are events that have stood out in Mr Mak's mind. He has listed three notable cases in his "Emails to My Children": an open fire case, a plane crash and a hostage incident.

Open fire case

In this case, Mr Mak and three other colleagues, including two probationary inspectors, were checking licences and conducting body searches in a Wanchai billiard room at night in early 1973 when a man dashed out and ran downstairs. The party immediately gave chase but lost sight of the man in the street. They then split up in two directions to continue the chase, with Mr Mak and a colleague turning left, and the two other colleagues turning right.

Mr Mak found no trace of the man, and later learned that his other teammates had arrested the suspect who was armed with a handgun and a knife, and had fired at the officers before being overpowered. The officers were later awarded with medals for gallantry.

Recalling the incident in his book, Mr Mak said: "At that time, turning left or right was a split-second decision. If I had turned right and had caught the suspect, there might have been two possibilities: pulling off a major case and getting a medal for bravery, or got shot down with serious or fatal wound. The life of a police officer is just like this: danger could happen to us every minute of our job, and every decision that we have made could have very serious and different consequences."

Plane crash

One night in August 1999, Mr Mak was heading for the police emergency centre at Chek Lap Kok in his own car after receiving a report that a plane carrying 300 passengers had crashed on the runway during landing amid a windshear and turbulent wind. At that time, Typhoon Signal No. 8 was up, and the plane's right wing had hit the ground, turned over and caught fire. With debris, metal sheets, wooden planks, tree branches and pieces of paper flying around in strong wind and hitting his car's windscreen, and seeing police cars and ambulances converging at the airport, Mr Mak feared that casualties would be very high, and it would take one or two weeks to complete rescue and mopping-up work.

Miraculously, there was no explosion, and firemen quickly put out the fire. Rescuers, including police officers, had entered the fuselage, and led passengers to safety, reducing fatality to three. The death toll would have been higher had it not been the efforts of the rescuers.

Mr Mak observed in his book: "There are many things, such as natural disasters, that are out of our control, and we have to do our best to handle matters, but we are at the mercy of the Lord. Similarly, many other things, including aspirations, work results, postings, promotions and commendations, are very often beyond our control. So long as we have tried our best and discharged our roles, the results will be vested in God."

Hostage

One year later, Mr Mak handled another emergency at Chek Lap Kok. On July 31, 2000, a man arriving from the "Golden Triangle" forced his way into the airport restricted area, held up a Nepalese woman cleaning worker with a pistol-like object, and dragged her into an empty plane, keeping the Police at bay.

After arriving at the scene, Mr Mak had considered several options, including calling in the Special Duties Unit to make forced entry to rescue the hostage. However, taking into account the suspect's unstable state of mind and the safety of the hostage, only Force negotiators were called to the scene. While talks with the suspect were proceeding, Mr Mak had a lot to be concerned about, such as the suspect's reaction, the hostage's safety and unknown factors that might emerge. He had gone through several agonising hours before the suspect surrendered to the Police, bringing the case to a successful conclusion.

Mr Mak has listed the following observations of the incident in his book:

* "No matter how perfect a system or an arrangement is, inevitably there are loopholes or mistakes. No matter how hard and conscientiously one works, mishaps and unexpected things could happen to him or her, just like the Nepalese worker."

* "We should not handle things with emotion, and should give careful consideration to all related issues."

* "Resolving problems relies on God, not our intelligence and wisdom."

Since finishing "Emails to My Children", three more events have also left a lasting memory on Mr Mak: implementation of the Crime Formation Review, the Force's participation in the fight against SARS, and the arson in an MTR train in January.

He is very impressed with the hard work and contributions of frontline officers during the SARS crisis, but what has struck him most were the concerted efforts, unity, sense of commitment and determination displayed by all the parties concerned during the crisis. Likewise, he is equally impressed with the performances of the parties concerned in handling the arson, thus averting a likely major crisis.

As regard implementation of the Crime Formation Review in KE Region, Mr Mak said that although DVIT posts in his Region had been reduced by 10 per cent, the impact had been minimised to a great extent without affecting service quality and individual officers, as a result of staff consultations, as well as staff co-operation and support.

Mr Mak, who was the Project Manager of the Force's Customer Service Improvement Project in 1998 and 1999, staunchly supports the Force's efforts to improve service quality, and spoke highly of the Force's initiatives and measures to provide better services to meet rising public expectations. "For service quality, the software, such as a new service culture, keeping abreast of new developments and meeting rising public aspirations, are equally essential, apart from hardware!" he noted.

Mr Mak also appreciates the Force's efforts in providing professional training for officers' career developments. He pointed out that he himself had benefited a lot from training in Hong Kong, the Mainland and overseas. His training included a two-year full-time Master Degree Course of Business Administration at the Chinese University, one-year study at the Oxford University, Advanced Management Development Course at the Henley Management College in the UK, a training course at the Police Training School in West Yorkshire, and a two-year attachment to the Hampshire Constabulary.

"The training provided by the Force has not only improved our service quality, but also equipped officers to face up to challenges!" he noted.

"I'm very proud to have served the Force, and my service has been a every rewarding one. I trust the Force will continue to be an outward looking institution, serving the public to the best of its ability, keeping abreast of the times, and raising the qualities and standards of its men and women," Mr Mak concluded.

A young probationary inspector in 1972