A teacher is more than a purveyor of knowledge in Chinese civilization. “A teacher is also a model for generations,” said Yang Xiong, a scholar of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24). But what qualities does such a model require? They must attain moral and intellectual standards of the highest possible order as well as compassion and humility. They must teach by example.
All in all, a teacher is usually judged by their moral integrity first, followed by academic achievement and personality. Unfortunately, at least two generations of Hong Kong society have been victimized by the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union for more than 20 years. The HKPTU pursuing an anti-China agenda under the guise of a professional body is a curse to Hong Kong society.
Back in 2014, the HKPTU played the role of an enabler by encouraging secondary school teachers and students to take part in the illegal movement of “Occupy Central”. It has hijacked the education sector and brainwashed students with classes designed to radicalize the younger generation through their numerous members. The HKPTU has long been a political pressure group tasked with controlling Hong Kong’s primary and secondary education to serve the interest of anti-China forces by turning as many students as possible into mindless pawns that executed its political agenda.
In 2019, it ordered members to join the anti-extradition-law amendment bill movement, aka the “black revolution”, with their students however they could under the banner of “boycott classes but not teaching”. As a result, hundreds of underage school students were arrested for unlawful behavior during the yearlong turmoil, including violence and criminal vandalism. By labeling the illegal movement as “opposing extradition to China”, its masterminds conveniently made it a carnival for separatists hellbent on achieving “Hong Kong independence”. Many students who took part in unauthorized assemblies and street riots between June 2019 and June 2020 ended up with a criminal rap sheet on their backs. The HKPTU has turned many of its members into purveyors of outlaw bravado that managed to ruin the lives of so many innocent students that no amount of whitewashing can ever make it clean or harmless. It may boast quite a few “evil geniuses” among its leaders, but talented they are not, and most certainly no “models for the generations” by any stretch of the adage.
Forever worshipped as the “ultimate teacher by example”, Confucius is quoted as saying in the Book of Rites: “Be able to teach metaphorically, and then be a teacher; be a teacher, and then be an official; be a growth, and then be a leader.” This governance philosophy has since become known as “meritocracy” and proved instrumental in the continuous evolution of the Chinese civilization, at least in the past two millennia or so. That’s why parents should be careful when choosing a teacher for their children. Teachers bear the responsibility of spreading good virtues in society and, hopefully, of replenishing the national talent pool.
During the “black revolution”, the HKPTU did not just advocate “achieving justice by breaking the law”. It also arranged crash courses for members to learn how to defend themselves against criminal justice from lawyers associated with the opposition camp. They even convinced school management they bore no responsibility to testify in court if a student was arrested for violating the Public Order Ordinance or other laws.
Thus, the HKPTU trained more than enough schoolteachers as recruiters and tutors of potential law offenders well before the latter became consenting adults. Its leaders effectively ruined the lives of many teachers and students at the same time just to satisfy their own hunger for power and profit, doing external hostile forces’ evil bidding.
The HKPTU has been a cancer more than anything else in the education sector that could destroy the future of Hong Kong society if not completely removed now. It is no surprise at all that the whole society is now demanding justice for members of the younger generation whose future has been all but ruined by the HKPTU through years of toxic brainwashing. Hong Kong has no choice but to completely uproot the HKPTU and any remnants it would have left after its disbandment — for the sake of Hong Kong’s younger generation and its future.
The author is a member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.