The so-called scandal over media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying's donations to support the pan-democrats and Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun caused a stir across the media landscape last week.
The hoo-ha has finally died down, except for a handful of pro-Beijing news organisations that have continued to lash out at Lai for obvious reasons.
The uproar has not had any negative impact on Lai and his Next Media company; on the contrary, it has inadvertently boosted his reputation as a 'democracy tycoon' and his media product as a 'democracy newspaper'.
In all honesty, it's an open secret that Lai and his media organisation have been supporting the city's democratic movement for quite a while. The reports caused a stir mainly because they revealed how significant his financial contributions have been to the pan-democratic parties.
They showed he was the only non-member financial supporter of the Democratic Party. Almost all the party's donations came from Lai and he has also been responsible for up to 60 per cent of the Civic Party's donations over the years.
Our law doesn't prohibit political parties from receiving political donations, or require parties to declare the sources of donations. The latest news has exposed one thing: many people have talked about supporting democracy in Hong Kong, but few have put their money where their mouth is.
The real tragedy here is that Hong Kong has just one financial donor who truly supports the democratic movement.