Rafael Hui trial showed how corruption thrives in Hong Kong
Poor governance has fostered a culture of graft and made dishonesty pay
Hong Kong’s “trial of the decade” recently concluded with former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan, Sun Hung Kai Properties cochairman Thomas Kwok Pingkwong and their henchmen jailed for corruption.
Any observer of the Hong Kong scene must sadly note that this squalid affair merely revealed the infected, stinking, oozing tip of a much larger societal carbuncle.
But, as Winston Churchill said, in other circumstances, this prosecution and its aftermath may not represent “the beginning of the end; it may, however, be the end of the beginning”.
Top-level official venality has always been a problem in Hong Kong; from the 1840s onwards, periodic corruption scandals flared up because, from the outset, the colony was simply “that kind of place” and attracted – or created – “those kinds of people”.
Hongkongers frequently congratulate themselves that official corruption here is now minimal because – unlike most other Asian societies – police constables don’t take backhanders to look the other way at parking infractions and the like.
Official corruption falls within two broad categories, both of which lead to the same sorry destination. The corruption of commission involves taking personal advantage of one’s official position, as seen in the case of the disgraced, disgraceful Hui, Kwok and associates. This is the easier form of corruption to detect.
Much more insidious – and far more damaging to society’s fabric – is the corruption of omission: looking the other way from something patently wrong because one knows that speaking up will achieve little or nothing. This can be seen right across Hong Kong.