Walking the talk: 40 years later, retired corruption investigator sees lessons in Hong Kong’s landmark bribery crackdown
- Jimmy Wong, a retired chief investigator at ICAC, was part of unit that broke drug network’s stranglehold on local fruit market
- Bust more than 40 years ago helped rebuild public confidence after years of open bribery, he tells secondary school students
On a regular Saturday morning, it was business as usual at the Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market in Hong Kong, with workers rushing around with fresh produce in carts and boxes piled high along many of its narrow mazelike alleys.
But among the hubbub, an unusual group appeared – Jimmy Wong Yiu-chung, a retired chief investigator of Hong Kong’s anti-graft agency, was giving a tour to 30 secondary school students.
The 67-year-old was sharing his experiences in an “anti-corruption walk”, an annual guided tour hosted by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) as part of a programme to teach students about the history of Hong Kong’s fight against graft.
Other spots on the two-hour walk on January 11 included the ICAC’s Kowloon West Office and the nearby Lands Tribunal building – the former South Kowloon Magistracy – where students were briefed on the concept of rule of law and separation of powers.
More than four decades ago Wong was part of an ICAC unit that helped crack a corruption network in the fruit market, then being used as a cover to operate a heroin syndicate.