After public urging by some legislators, banker David Li Kwok-po has resigned from the Executive Council (Exco), an unelected group that “advises” Donald Tsang, Hong Kong’s chief executive. Despite lacking democratic validity, Exco acts as Tsang’s cabinet.

Li, seen as Tsang’s close friend, had been implicated in a US insider-stock-trading case. Although never conceding guilt, he agreed to pay a multi-million-dollar penalty.

Tsang released a statement: “Mr Li said the issue of the trading in the shares of Dow Jones had already come to an end, following his settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. However, he regretted the matter had caused public concern and wished to resign from the council.

“I respect Mr Li’s decision and accepted his resignation. Since Mr Li became an Exco member in 2005, he has given invaluable advice and contributed to effective governance. I’ll miss him greatly and hope he’ll continue to serve Hong Kong in other areas.”

Like most government utterances, Tsang’s words lack a solid foundation of truthfulness. In fact, Li couldn’t offer much to “effective governance” because Hong Kong has experienced no such thing.

Ideally, Tsang and the remaining Exco members should resign too. None of them holds a valid public mandate. In that situation, there’s neither honor, nor good government, for anyone.

By resigning, Li may have demonstrated that, despite the insider-trading allegations, he’s a more honorable person than anyone left on Exco.

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