It's been almost six months since Bishop Zen Ze-kiun won the SAR column and RTHK Backchat programme's Person of the Year readers'/listeners' poll.
And for all that time we have been meaning to get around to giving him our Person of the Year Trophy - an engraved silver ring made by Madonna's jeweller, Stephen Webster.
He's a busy man, but last week we finally managed it, and found the bishop extremely forgiving. 'It's never too late to do the right thing,' he said. 'I want to thank readers of the SAR column for thinking of me.'
Pressed on why he thought readers had decided he was Hong Kong's Person of the Year for 2002 (by an impressive 25 per cent margin), he said: 'I think it is because SCMP readers share many of my views: that Hong Kong needs more democracy, more political freedom and more support for those who are weak or helpless.'
He added that there was a political vacuum in Hong Kong. 'I think people feel frustrated that they don't have a stake in the political system of Hong Kong.'
