TONY CHEUNG TONY.CHEUNG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Monday, 03 August, 2015, 10:27am
UPDATED : Monday, 03 August, 2015, 10:29am
HKU students have been brainwashed by the opposition camp, according to People's Daily. Photo: Dickson Lee
“Radical” University of Hong Kong students stormed a meeting of the institution’s governing council last week partly because they had been “brainwashed by the opposition camp” in the city, the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece said today.
It was the second time in five days that the overseas edition of state-run People’s Daily condemned the students’ action last Tuesday.
In recent months, the university’s 22-strong governing body has been divided over whether to appoint former law dean Johannes Chan Man-mun as a pro-vice-chancellor.
Since Chan’s candidacy was revealed, pro-Beijing newspapers have criticised him for his working relationship with HKU law academic and Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting. Shortly before students stormed into the council meeting, the body had voted down a motion for it to stop delaying Chan’s appointment until a supervisory provost is named.
The protesters were concerned that academic freedom was being compromised by the delay, but People’s Daily writer Wang Dake wrote that “radical students had completely lost rationality”.
Referring to councillor Professor Lo Chung-mau’s knee injury during the furore, Wang also wrote: “It was completely inhumane and illogical for radical students to … obstruct the injured from being taken to hospital.”
“These radical students lacked [respect for the city’s] law … because of their radical thinking and the opposition’s ‘brainwashing’ and instigation, and the lack of deterrent in the sentences of similar cases in the past,” Wang wrote.
HKU students’ union president Billy Fung Jing-en, and education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen could not be reached for comment yet, but Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, who resigned as a councillor last week, had questioned whether those who insulted councillors and obstructed Lo from being taken to hospital were HKU students.
Meanwhile, HKU councillor Ayesha Macpherson’s husband Dr Lawrence Lau Juen-yee also weighed into the controversy. In a strongly-worded article in theSouth China Morning Post, the former Chinese University vice-chancellor described the young protesters who stormed the council as “spoiled brats”.
“[The storming] would raise doubts about whether Hong Kong taxpayers’ money should continue to be used to coddle these self-centred [people] who have no respect and consideration for other people’s freedom and rights,” he wrote.
“Some penalty, such as one day in jail or 100 hours of supervised community service, would do these young people a great deal of good,” Lau wrote, adding that his wife was insulted by “mobsters” on Tuesday.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1846056/hku-students-branded-brainwashed-radicals-chinese
