Successor

(Our conversation continued.)

“Dirty British politics,” L sighed.

“Alas, don’t blame the Iron Lady – our good old Mr. Tung certainly learnt from her.” I smiled.

“Did he? What? When? Who?” My friend suddenly summoned three honest servants of his.

“Don’t you remember? When that Mr. Tung was in charge of our city, he wished to do away with a certain Mr. Tsang. But, since Donald was a senior official and could not be fired, he was promoted to the most senior position of the civil servant.”

“Ah… I see what you mean. Our unfortunate Donald became, on paper, the right-hand man of Mr. Tung – who was left-handed.” L chuckled, “Every project and all decisions were directly reported to Mr. Tung, and the right hand was a dummy.”

“Exactly. By some positive thinking – pioneered by Lu Xun (魯迅) or Ah Q – you can call it extended paid leave. The very point is Mr. Tung certainly had someone else in his mind to be his successor as CE, and, by putting Donald idle, he could avoid inadvertent competition and secure the passage of power.”


“Very true … but, hold on. Didn’t we start with discussing what happened in a gangsters’ meeting?” My friend suddenly jumped back to square one.

I did not make further comments.