Hong Kong spirit shone in prayer service for jailed ex-leader Donald Tsang

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Donald Tsang, pictured with wife Selina Tsang Pou Siu-mei, is serving his sentence with meek compliance and in the silence of prayers. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 3:59pm, 3 Apr 2017Updated: 12:41pm, 15 Oct 2020

As Winston Churchill once said, democracy is the worst kind of government, except for all the other kinds that have been tried.

So Hong Kong is the worst Chinese city in the world, except for all the others that it has been compared with.

An affirmation of this came last week when we saw dignity and compassion openly displayed at a service of prayers for Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, the imprisoned former chief executive. Tsang, who is serving a 20-month term for misconduct in public office, has appealed against his conviction and applied for bail.

The one-hour service, held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, was attended by members of his family, chief executive-elect Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, and other prominent figures, as well as hundreds of ordinary citizens. It was the most civilised of demonstrations, and one in which the people of Hong Kong were not protesting but showing a solidarity of decency and empathy, and respite from all the troubles in the territory.

Tsang himself has been an exemplary prisoner. He accepted his verdict and repeated his faith in the people of Hong Kong, and is serving his sentence with meek compliance and in the silence of prayers.

This is a paradigm of contrition that exemplifies the importance and acceptance of the rule of law.