HK Ombudsman probes $12m funding to patriotic centres

Parents, students & teachers protest
'patriotic education' booklet

NPC Dy Yeung Yiu-chung
gets HK$12m per annum

Michael Suen believed to
have siphoned funds to pro-Beijing
National Education Centres

Education Department asked to clarify

Besides provoking 90,000 Hong Kong parents, students and teachers to protest-march last Sunday (July 29) , the government’s clumsy attempt to force ‘patriotic education’ on schools has now attracted a probe by the Ombudsman’s Office. It seeks to establish how HK$12 million taxpayer dollars is being funnelled annually without open tender, into two pro-Beijing agencies, both headed by the same person, for production of patriotic education materials.

The agencies which enjoy the government’s unusual largesse are the National Education Centre and the National Education Services Centre, both headed by National Peoples’ Congress (NPC) deputy Yeung Yiu-chung and run by the 26,000 member Federation of Education Workers (FEW).

The Ombudsman’s letter notifying the 80,000 strong HK Professional Teachers’ Union of the probe, refers to study of ‘relevant materials’ - presumably the output of the twin national education outfits - as the basis for its action.

Before citizens get too excited about the Ombudsman’s involvement, note that his office is also investigating three government departments for failing to curb a hawker stall, the Fisheries Department for not removing stray cats and the Lands Department for not dismantling an unauthorised structure on government property.

Patriotic study tours for select HK schools

While at it, Ombudsman Alan Lai-nin should also check out the Education Bureau’s facilitation and subsidy of reportedly HK$1million for 450 students from 35 secondary schools in July, to tour scenic spots and the Mao Zedong Relics Museum in Hunan. The Education Bureau does not list the schools involved. It will be useful to know if there is a common thread underpinning this select group which is so favoured. The Bureau provided tour booklets which tell how Mao “sought the truth to save the country and citizens”.

Part of the student experience includes a display of Chairman Mao’s pyjamas replete with 73 repair patches as evidence of his “hardworking, frugal and noble character.” A Hong Kong girl interviewed by Hunan TV News gushed “I think Chairman Mao grandpa is quite amiable”. It is on YouTube. That about wraps up the educational value of the tour.

Education funds diverted without open tender

Last year the Donald Tsang administration siphoned HK$86 million for a six year program of patriotic education to cover teaching materials, study tours and training courses. The Professional Teachers’ Union however does not have any role in the Education Bureau’s program. That has been reserved for the Federation of Education Workers which is paid out of taxpayer dollars without any competitive tendering. What special educational expertise the FEW has is unclear other than its ‘United Front’ role in the education sector.

The HK government has deviated from standard procurement procedures without transparency or accountability, setting a precedent which the public wants stopped. Why the secrecy in deploying public funds? What else is the HKSAR administration hiding from its citizens? Why?

Financial Secretary Michael Suen who was Secretary for Education in the Donald Tsang administration, is widely believed to have engineered the funding for NPC deputy Yeung Yiu-chung, who chairs both the beneficiaries. Incoming Education Secretary Eddie Ng Kam-hai was caught with the dirty secret Michael Suen left behind. His lack of prior briefing showed as he dithered while the patriotic education farce unravelled. He was summoned to Beijing and stiffened up to mouth support for what his conscience told him was clearly against Hong Kong’s core values.

Hong Kong citizens and legislators - outside those complicit in the plot - are only now becoming aware of the extent of diversion of education funds to unknown agencies for problematic patriotic education campaigns.

National education or indoctrination?

Neither parents, students nor teachers who participated in the protest march through the blazing Sunday have any problem with factual national education about the motherland’s culture, traditions, geography, space exploration, economic progress, pollution or ecology. They draw the line at disguised party propaganda, distortion of history, silence on major policy disasters, hero-worshipping of Mao and widespread human rights abuses unacceptable in any civilised society.

That is a crucial distinction the propaganda promoters refuse to acknowledge. They conflate national education with indoctrination. Hong Kong society is too aware and alert for that to fly. They want clarity of intent from their government and professional scrutiny of teaching materials to excise propaganda. Information yes, indoctrination no. Critical thinking yes, regimentation no.

Dire warnings to HK ‘troublemakers’

A Basic Law Committee stalwart of the Standing Committee of The National Peoples’ Congress, Lau Nai-keung, used his column in the South China Morning Post (Aug 3, Op-Ed, A13) to warn HK citizens of punishment for challenging authority. The piece titled ‘Hong Kong courts disaster with culture of opposition’ intimated that Beijing’s patience is running out for ungrateful HK residents who refuse to salute the wisdom of the Party.

Mr Lau raises the spectre of a China challenged by external and internal threats and declares that Hong Kong is a ’springboard’ to destabilize the mainland, suggesting Beijing will move beyond benevolence to squash dissidents if they don’t hew to the party line.

What these external and internal threats are is not spelled out by Mr Lau. How punishing Hong Kong parents, teachers and students for demanding a clear separation between education and propaganda can resolve China’s domestic contradictions, remains unclear.

Next CCP leadership to set new priorities

The legitimacy of the CCP is being challenged by village communities left behind in the Dengist economic reforms of the last three decades. The wealth gap, rampant official corruption, theft of farmlands by bullying Party apparatchiks, polluting industrial facilities that poison rivers and food-chain, tainted milk and other food products churned out by factories protected by local Party chiefs, arbitrary arrest and torture of citizens who dare protest and petition for their rights and arrogant abuse of power and privilege, coalesce into the cracked social mirror that scares the ghosts who unleash these iniquities.

The ‘divine right to rule’ of the last imperial regime was ended by Sun Yat Sen’s republican revolution of 1911. The Chinese Communist Party re-educated the last Emperor as a repair workshop mechanic after releasing him from prison in 1959. The CCP has no divine right to rule either. Respect for the Party has to be earned.

More mature heads at the apex of the CCP leadership are preparing to announce an inclusive development policy to address the wealth gap, environmental degradation, social equity and the cancer of corruption at all levels of the Party, in the October session of the 18th National Peoples’ Congress which will confirm the fifth generation CCP leaders.

HK citizens do not fear their government. Dissidents do not expect to be kidnapped in the dead of night by secret police. Their families are not punished. They do not ‘disappear’ nor are they ‘suicided’ in custody. The incoming leadership in China will hopefully have the greater wisdom and confidence to finally liberate citizens from abuse by an unfettered police state apparatus, six decades after the promise of social justice.



ENDS