For nearly three years, there have been repeated reports of severe disagreements between Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and his deputy, Chief Secretary for Administration Anson Chan Fang On-sang, on a wide range of important issues.
Throughout all these, the Government has stayed largely silent, declining to respond even to many of the most damaging reports.
But last week that changed. In a highly unusual move, Information Co-ordinator Stephen Lam Sui-lung took the initiative to deny reports that had appeared in several local papers - and which were reprinted in this column last Sunday - that his two bosses were at odds over the composition of the much-delayed Culture and Heritage Commission.
'It is untrue that the Chief Executive and the Chief Secretary for Administration hold a different view on this matter,' he wrote, in a carefully-worded letter to the Post.
That may be a matter of definition as bureaucrats use different language from everyone else. Within government, coming to a view means reaching a firm decision.
And, of course, there have still not been any decisions on the formation of this commission, even though it was meant to come into existence on January 1, to take over the cultural responsibilities of the now-defunct municipal councils.
What no one denies is that the Government has been subject to intense lobbying by those interested in being appointed.
