In the days of syndicated police corruption 40 years ago it used to be said that a police officer could 'get aboard the bus and take his cut, or run alongside the bus knowing what was going on but not profiting personally, or stand in front of the bus - and get run over'. Many in the force saw the extra rewards as pay-offs for their loyalty to the colonial regime, particularly during the 1967 riots.
As the son of a police officer, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen must remember all that. So does Tsang ever wonder whether the ills of the pre-ICAC police can now be found in other parts of government?
The Ombudsman's report on the repeated failure of government departments to enforce building laws in the New Territories is damning - but surely no surprise given the huge number of media reports of such failings over several years. One included a persistent breach of the law by a cousin of Tsang over land acquired when Tsang was district officer in Sha Tin.
The administration has long given the impression that it lives in awe of the feudal system in the New Territories represented by the Heung Yee Kuk. That awe now seems to extend to the Legislative Council which let the kuk's boss, Lau Wong-fat, off with the mildest of rebukes for failing to disclose numerous land transactions.
The line at which collusion between government and certain businesses crosses from mutual back-scratching to corruption is a fine one. But popular perceptions of collusion are constantly reinforced by the links between senior civil servants, past and present, and business. Once a member of the bureaucratic elite, you join a forever charmed circle.
Take the low-key and uncontroversial Wilfred Wong Ying-wai. From a directorate-level position in the civil service he moved to the property sector - K Wah, Henderson, Shui On and is now executive deputy chairman of Hsin Chong Construction. Fine. But what, apart from his links with Tsang and other civil servants and being a politically correct delegate to the National People's Congress, qualifies him for a slew of government appointments, including chairman of the Arts Development Council, the International Film Festival Society, the Court and Council of Baptist University plus a member of the Tourism Board and Airport Authority?
