Tung Chee-hwa died Tuesday at 89. Government offices across the city held a minute of mourning, flags came down, and by Wednesday every political group from every side of the spectrum, pro-Beijing, pro-business, the lot, put out a statement saying basically the same thing: the man built the template everyone since him has been copying or complaining about. That almost never happens here. Normally these groups cannot agree on the MTR fare increase.

Here is the thing about Tung that gets lost when everyone reaches for "founding father" language. He was the shipping guy who became the first boss of a city that had just changed owners, and he spent his term getting blamed for things that were not really his fault, SARS, the property crash, a civil service that did not love him back. Old Sham Shui Po uncles who lived through it will tell you he was awkward on camera and stubborn in meetings. But this week even his critics are not fighting him, they are just quiet. In a city this loud, that is the real tribute.