Opinion | Doing it just because you can spells trouble for powerful
The jailing of former Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang shows how the mighty are most vulnerable to temptation
But watching the 72-year-old former chief executive handcuffed and taken to a maximum security prison, I couldn’t help but feel traumatised and diminished. This is what happens when political leaders so publicly and so spectacularly fall from grace. They don’t just disqualify themselves from leadership and tarnish their legacy but devastate those who have followed them.
Reactions to hisconviction range from confusion to disbelief to fury. Some feel sorrow and pity for a dedicatedadministrator whose long, distinguished service is now forever blemished. Some look for all the dirty details of the case, secretly happy to see another authority figure go down.
For those who have always harboured a deep distrust of the government, this confirms their worst fears and suspicions about the ruling class. These are consequences of a leadership failure that seep into society. Martin Luther King said when the leader falls, everyone is punished. So true.
The charge of which Tsang was convicted, misconduct in office, may seem trivial. Compare this, for example, to the charges brought against Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan’s former president who was sentenced to life in prison eight years ago. He was found guilty of embezzling from a special presidential office fund, accepting bribes in connection with a land deal, laundering money through Swiss bank accounts and forging documents. What Tsang did, by comparison, seemed so inconsequential that it should have got the attention of the tabloid press, not the court.