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Monday, June 24, 2019, 20:26
The core values that we all hold dear
By Ho Lok-sang
Monday, June 24, 2019, 20:26 By Ho Lok-sang

It is sad to see young people taking other people to task and acting dangerously to undermine Hong Kong’s core values. Six student unions threatened to escalate protest actions if the government did not respond to their demands over the controversial extradition law by 5 pm on June 20. They asked for “a complete withdrawal of the extradition bill; investigation of the police force for police brutality; total recall of the June 12 ‘Riot’ claim; freeing and dropping charges against arrested protesters”. On Friday, their followers assembled and blocked roads, besieged the police headquarters, and occupied the lobby of some government buildings, including the Revenue Tower and Immigration Tower. The police headquarters were forced to effectively shut down. As a result, police’s response to emergency calls to 999 was disrupted. 

Let us look at these demands in turn to see if they are reasonable.

The SAR government has already suspended the second reading of the Extradition Law Amendment Bill, and has already indicated that it will not revisit the issue anytime soon. According to the convener of the Executive Council, Bernard Charnwut Chan, this is equivalent to shelving the bill altogether. We know that students wanted “a complete withdrawal”. But what does “a complete withdrawal” mean? Can Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor speak for the next administration? Can circumstances change so that Hong Kong people, upon rethinking and upon further revisions of the bill, agree that they want the bill passed after all? They appear to rule out such possibilities, but just as they want the government to be open-minded and receptive to other people’s ideas, why can’t they be open-minded too?

Our university students will be our future leaders. It is important that they treasure the core values that have allowed Hong Kong to rise to become a global financial center and an international commercial center. We want them to be independent critical thinkers so that they can make unbiased judgement based on their conscience 

The call to investigate the police force for police brutality has totally ignored the violence on the part of some of the protesters. Just as former police commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung said over the weekend, the police force has the duty to maintain order and peace, defend itself, and protect the Legislative Council premises and public property. When asked whether he would agree to such an investigation, he told reporters that in his judgment, the police were doing what was necessary under the circumstances. In particular, he said that tear gas was no longer sufficient to check the advance of the crowds and to protect themselves from harm from the bricks and other objects hurled at them. He asked the reporters to put themselves in the position of the police officers on the scene. Finally, he asked if Hong Kong people would rather have a police force that performs its duty to serve and to protect, or to run away at the advance of a mob.

As to the third demand, “total recall of the June 12 ‘riot’ claim”, Senior Counsel and Executive Council member Ronny Tong Ka-wah said that, in Hong Kong, any reference to “riot” by any individual does not mean anything in a court of law, where only the riotous act proved with evidence would eventually lead to a conviction of engaging in riotous behavior. So far, no one ever said that all the protesters were rioters. It is a fact that 99 percent or more of the protesters were peaceful. As far as I know, only a total of 32 protesters have been arrested, five of whom being charged with rioting offenses. Eight protesters have been released. And these numbers are extremely tiny relative to the hundreds of thousands protesters who had taken to the streets.

The student unions that asked for the release of everyone who had been arrested must either have chosen to be blind to the riotous behavior of some of their fellow protesters, or have genuinely missed the footage of violence that had been captured in videos. Either way, issuing a statement demanding that the police release those charged with crimes through more protests or “non-cooperation action” goes against the core values of Hong Kong and is highly irresponsible.

The six student unions are from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Science and Technology, Education University, City University, the Academy for Performing Arts, and Hang Seng University, which issued the demand along with the Federation of Students. As much as I appreciate their sense of social awareness, I cannot endorse the irresponsible call for the release of people charged with crimes. As Tsang says, if political pressures work and wrongdoers can walk away scot-free, Hong Kong will decline as its rule of law crumbles. In Hong Kong, our law enforcers and our judiciary need to work independently free of political pressures. Do our students appreciate the importance of this?

Our university students will be our future leaders. It is important that they treasure the core values that have allowed Hong Kong to rise to become a global financial center and an international commercial center. We want them to be independent critical thinkers so that they can make unbiased judgement based on their conscience. We want them to respect dissent. Just as Lam was wrong at trying to rush through a bill because she thought she had the numbers, the protesters would be wrong if they try to force their will on the rest of society just because they think they have the numbers. This is not the Hong Kong we want. My hope is that we all learn.

The author is the dean of business at Chu Hai College of Higher Education.

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