The new loyalty pledge required of civil servants has led to much grumbling within the 180,000-strong public workforce. It’s hard to see what’s wrong with asking public workers to declare their allegiance to the Hong Kong government and the Basic Law, our mini-constitution. As our opposition politicians love to say, we must follow international practices and standards. Well, there is no more common government standard than such loyalty declarations. Note: local civil servants are not being asked to pledge allegiance to China or the ruling Communist Party. In-house researchers at the Legislative Council have released a new study of such practices in six democratic countries: the United States, Britain, Canada, Japan, Australia and Germany. All six require civil servants to indicate they will serve the constitution, and the government of the day, regardless of their own political stance. Except for Britain and Australia, a formal or legal oath is required. Except for Japan and Hong Kong, there are also routine security checks on civil servants, broken into levels of intensity and scrutiny. All six democracies assess loyalty concerns on the basis of personal conduct, association with organisations and groups, and personal connections. The US, Australia and Germany can access foreign financial interests. The first two also look into foreign passports, but not Germany. In other words, by such categories, Hong Kong completely lagged behind Western democratic practices, until now. Even with the new pledge, civil servants still have it easy. One reason for the cavalier attitude of the Hong Kong government has been the principle and practice of political neutrality for the civil service, which dates from the British colonial era. Traditionally minded civil servants, especially those whose government careers started before the 1997 handover, took political neutrality seriously. Hong Kong civil servants warned loyalty pledge may be tied to promotions But it was mainly a gentleman’s agreement, more norm than law. In deeply divided Hong Kong, still trying to recover from the unprecedented social turmoil of 2019, some civil servants have found it difficult to serve the government as opposed to what they consider to be in the public interest. I respect their personal or political beliefs, but such individuals should do the honourable thing and quit. Interestingly, except for Britain and Germany, the other four democracies legally require civil servants to lay aside their “self-judged” public interests to execute government orders and instructions. Unwritten norms and gentleman’s agreements can function with strong social cohesion and consensus. Unfortunately, that’s not how Hong Kong functions any more.