ALLEGATIONS levelled against the Independent Commission Against Corruption and Correctional Services Department last week pointed to cover-ups by officials. While the public focus is on the contents of these disclosures and in the case of the ICAC maybe the motives behind them, we should perhaps also spare a thought for the sources of these kinds of revelations, the whistle-blowers who dare to tell the truth as they see it.
Under normal circumstances, Alex Tsui Ka-kit, formerly deputy director of operations at the ICAC, would not have claimed that the commission had bugged the phones of former secretary for transport Yeung Kai-yin and former executive and legislative councillor Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai.
Nor would Mr Tsui have said the commission drew up a list of people whose private lives were put under surveillance, allegedly for political reasons.
In fact his allegations, still being evaluated by the Legislative Council's security panel, have been described by the Governor Chris Patten as totally groundless.
But the more important point is, had Mr Tsui not actually been sacked for reasons he found unacceptable, would he have made these allegations? The answer is no. Under the ICAC's strict rules, which he would have had to follow and enforce on his subordinates, he would have been barred from speaking out.
If Mr Tsui had retired from the ICAC in the normal way, it would still have been unlikely that he would have washed the ICAC's dirty linen in public because to do so would have still been against the rules.