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With apologies to all! A hiccup in Hong Kong

Such an apology was not unusual in Asia. This is a part of the world where prominent political figures seem to be apologising almost every other month. This is to distinguish Asia from America, where almost no one ever admits a mistake and where many who are clearly in error remain firmly in denial.

One reason for this pronounced difference is that Asia has been around so much longer than America. Thus, an apology is not deemed to be the end of the world —or indeed of a political figure's career —but an act of true contrition that solidifies the culture.

But here in the States, it's considered such a big deal that no typical politician in his right calculating mind would even consider apologising. President Richard Nixon, when under fire for lying and other sinning, resigned from the presidency in 1973 but didn't apologise. Some Americans are still waiting for Bill Clinton to formally apologise for lying about the Monica affair. America will probably have to wait until Iraq is an Islamic state for President George W Bush to apologise for the Iraq War.

In Asia people do not have to wait long —and sometimes they don't have to wait at all.

Early-on in his administration, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun not only apologised for his stuttering performance but proposed —without hardly any prompting —to organise a public referendum on whether his remaining in office was in the national interest. He had just recently been elected! In Taiwan, the self-governing offshore island next to China, President Chen Shui-bian has apologised so much, it is almost got embarrassing, at least by western standards!

In Hong Kong, Tsang's offence was to suggest that his place needs to slow down its push towards full democracy because things could get out of hand. Pressure from his constituents for full voting-rights (never granted by the British during 156 years of occupation, may I mention) mounts by the month there. In a recent radio interview, Tsang, now in his second term as the territory's top dog, suggested that a recklessly accelerated rush to democracy could create the kind of instability experienced by Mainland China during the truly-awful Cultural Revolution.

If that's what Tsang meant, his suggestion certainly hit home, but in the wrong way. Hong Kong, with seven million or so citizens, is nothing like the mainland, with its 1.3-plus billion people. What's more, Hong Kong is already a nicely rowdy place. Topeka, Kansas, it is not (thank the heavens for that!). It is more like an Asian Manhattan —vertical, overpopulated, brassy, mesmerising —a place that teems with life, confusion and tumult. It's everything you could reasonably want from a modern metropolis.

I do love the place. So does —among many others —Anson Chan, the long-revered civil servant who recently threw her hat in a race for a seat in the legislature there. Many, though not all, Hong Kongers adore Chan as a kind of cultured "Iron Lady" pearl that some day probably should be running the place.

Given the chance to stomp all over Chief Executive Tsang, Anson took the high road, characteristically. She accepted his apology but then suggested that Donald is going to become some kind of sitting duck if he tries to throw apocalyptic horror-show fears in the way of the people's desire for democracy.

In fact, true democracy, when it's arrived at through a steady process, can be profoundly stabilising, rather than the opposite. Giving people the right to dissent and the right to vote and the right to change their mind provides a built-in steam-remover. Rather than revolt by heading to the streets and looking for trouble, people speak their mind, petition for change and vote leaders in or out of office. It can have a tension-relieving effect. Democracy isn't for everyone in all situations at all times in every nation's evolution. I am sorry to say that but this is true. But it is a system that, when it is working well, is quite something to behold.

Hong Kong is headed in that direction, and should arrive at something like Democracy Station before too long. There is no other way it can work —if it's all to remain peaceful. And about that, no one in Hong Kong need make any apology at all.

Tom Plate, a full-time adjunct professor at UCLA, is a veteran US journalist