IT is often said that columnists hate being proved wrong, and will often conveniently forget comments which appear ill-timed.
This is not always so. On this occasion, if the comments in Monitor in June 10 prove ill-timed, then it can only be a cause for optimism.
We said that the biggest disappointment in the annual report from the Securities and Futures Commission was the two meagre sentences devoted to insider dealing.
''Outsiders may think it is so rife that nothing can be done,'' was the comment after another year had passed while the Insider Dealing Tribunal remained dormant.
The remarks at the Legislative Council finance panel yesterday by acting SFC chairman Robert Gilmore that the SFC expected to call for the tribunal to be convened over the next couple of months, may mean this perception will change.
Many problems, no doubt, lie ahead. The application by the SFC to start tribunal proceedings cannot be taken for granted until it is made.
If the alleged insider is a minnow it may be a useful try-out for the legislation, passed in 1991 and never used - but do nothing to allay the feeling that small fish get fried while big fish swim free.