Since 1983, when pegging the Hong Kong dollar to the US dollar helped soothe frightened members of the public, some of whom had started to demand payment in US dollars, the linked exchange rate mechanism has been sacrosanct.
For many in Hong Kong, changing the peg would be like repainting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or turning the Taj Mahal into a shopping mall.
From the time that financial secretary John Bremridge announced that the Hong Kong dollar would be pegged at HK$7.8 to US$1 on October 17, 1983, his successors over the past 29 years have stood by it. This includes current Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah, who yesterday insisted that the government was 'fully committed to maintaining the linked exchange rate system'.
As a result, a call yesterday by former Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) chief executive Joseph Yam Chi-kwong for a review of the peg stirred up a hornets' nest - particularly since Yam never suggested the need for such a review during his 16-year reign at the helm of the HKMA, which ended in 2009.
'A fixed exchange rate cannot be an end in itself, although it can be an effective tool for achieving a monetary environment that serves well the public interest,' Yam said in an academic paper.
The city's emphasis on maintaining the peg since 1983 boils down to one word: certainty. Although it meant Hong Kong lost control of interest rates and had to follow the US Federal Reserve's every move, businesses and investors have liked the security that the peg offers - particularly during the Asian crisis.