Photo: Immigration & Checkpoints Authority
First Commissioner of ICA
– Lock Wai Han
– Lock Wai Han
SPF veteran Lock Wai Han was appointed to take the helm of the newly
established Immigration & Checkpoints Authority in 2003. As the
inaugural Commissioner of ICA, Cmr Lock was tasked with merging two
established organisations into a new entity.
His appointment came at the time of “the perfect storm”: the new
organisation had to contend with creating a new identity, while dealing
with regional security concerns as a result of 9/11, and SARS.
But SARS was a crisis with a silver lining. Cmr Lock explained: “SARS actually presented a common enemy and a very clear and present danger for the entire organisation to focus on. All the officers came together, rallied together, even though they came from different organisations in the past, to tackle this threat together.
“That greatly helped us in the way that we integrated together and created new responses that were not readily available in the domain of the previous organisations that we once were.”
But SARS was a crisis with a silver lining. Cmr Lock explained: “SARS actually presented a common enemy and a very clear and present danger for the entire organisation to focus on. All the officers came together, rallied together, even though they came from different organisations in the past, to tackle this threat together.
“That greatly helped us in the way that we integrated together and created new responses that were not readily available in the domain of the previous organisations that we once were.”