However, this was not one of our Hong Kong civil servants. This was an official working for the consulate of a wealthy, developed country. I found myself thinking that if a Hong Kong civil servant behaved like that to the public, there would be letters to the newspapers and calls to radio talk shows.

We take our high public service standards for granted, even though they are every bit as important to Hong Kong's success as the rule of law, freedom of speech or low taxes. Indeed, some of my colleagues in politics and business like to pick on the public sector. They say it is overmanned, that public servants are overpaid, they're inefficient and are a burden rather than an asset.

Yes, there are undoubtedly instances of overmanning in the public sector, and pay and benefits in many cases might well have grown seriously out of alignment with private-sector levels.

But I am strongly against blaming the civil servants as if they are personally responsible for that. I also believe that we need to bear in mind that if you want good quality public services, you have to pay for them.

As part of my public role, I have spent time with public-sector staff, especially from the disciplined services and the welfare sector. I have learned that there are differences between life as a corporate employee and life on the public payroll. The public-sector pay system is centralised and inflexible, and the value of people's work - the 'profit' they create - is hard to measure.

But the main difference is the people. Far more than in a profit-making company, the public sector stresses loyalty and stability. For years, our civil servants were used to stability and consistency. They did not experience job losses and pay cuts on the scale of the private sector in the past five years. But they never enjoyed the bonuses or the rewards from job-hopping that private sector-employees had in the 1990s. Most of them are happy with that. They like these things to be predictable and they are extremely uncomfortable with uncertainty.

Criticism from politicians and the business community is making them even more nervous. They have seen the government bowing to public pressure and listening to what tycoons say on other issues.

Public-sector reform is necessary and inevitable. But that does not mean we have to keep civil servants totally in the dark, worrying about their future. I believe the government should lay out a long-term, guaranteed bottom line to reassure public-sector workers that their worst fears are unfounded - for example, a definite assurance that their basic salary levels and pensions are safe.

That sort of clarity and openness would help to rebuild morale in our public services. It would help us assure our public servants that we value a high-quality public sector, and we are willing to pay for it. Ultimately, it would also help preserve an essential feature that makes Hong Kong better than other places.

Bernard Chan is a member of the Legislative Council, representing the insurance functional constituency