The Curriculum Framework of National Security Education has been released, filling the curriculum of primary and secondary schools with the words national security. The curriculum framework for junior high school history states that students should understand the importance of national sovereignty and territorial integrity when learning about the British colonial period. The Education Bureau’s guideline is that teachers can use annual reports and gazettes from the early days of Hong Kong to provide students with an understanding of the characteristics of governance, such as the great power of the governors of Hong Kong, the fact that all senior positions were held by British officials, and the unfair discrimination against Chinese. In other words, they want students to develop a hatred for the colonial past, and thus understand the importance of national sovereignty, without which Hong Kong people will be subject to all kinds of bullying by foreigners! What the Communist Party resents most is the fact that the people of Hong Kong have not only never developed any national grudges, but are in fact sentimentally attached to the colonial past and believe that things are not as good as they used to be. Therefore, although the Communists vowed to “set things right,” it is unfortunately completely wrong.

First of all, although the colonial governors under the principal constitutional documents of British Hong Kong, the “Hong Kong Letters Patent” and the “Hong Kong Royal Instructions,” had great powers, they could not act arbitrarily. This is because the suzerain state is a Westminster democracy in which the government is supervised by the parliament and monitored by the media. Everyone can consider the advantages and disadvantages of a foreign dictatorial governor under a democratic system compared to a local dictatorial chief executive under a dictatorial system. Moreover, the so-called great power and authority of the governors existed only in the early 20th century. As Hong Kong was a commercial port, businessmen and bureaucrats were two major checks on the governors, especially when, after the 1967 leftist riots, the British reformed Hong Kong’s colonial administrative system, which was eventually put into practice by Sir Murray MacLehose. British rule in Hong Kong was a civilized dictatorship that valued procedural fairness and compliance with the law to the extent that power was mostly kept in reserve and not used. The “evil nature” of the colonial system did not lie in the governor’s personal dictatorship, but in the harsh laws of the colony. The autocratic governance used these draconian laws against the colonial people, such as the Public Order Ordinance, the Crimes Ordinance Sections 9 and 10, and rioting charges. However, these laws were rarely used during the colonial era, as the governors and the British bureaucrats made good use of political means to address social conflicts, instead of just suppressing, prosecuting, and punishing. They did not resort to suppressing, prosecuting and imposing sentences because they understood that these high-handed measures would only bring about temporary suppression and could not achieve political order and long-term stability. Upon Hong Kong’s liberation from colonialism, it was the SAR government that was most eager to retain the colonial draconian laws and prosecute the public using them after the Chinese government resumed its sovereignty. When faced with such queries from students in the classroom, teachers will likely be at a loss as to how to respond, which is indeed a worrying situation.

As for the criticism that the top officials in Hong Kong were British, this is similar to the Shanghai International Settlement being co-managed by foreigners, such that the Chinese mentality is that provided it is well managed, what is the problem with having foreigners manage it? After Hong Kong became a colony and before the closure of the Lo Wu border in 1952, people were free to come and go. How could Hong Kong have become an international city if British officials had made a shambles of the place? Of course, there were problems in colonial Hong Kong, but everything is relative and comparable. For 30 years after the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the whole country had been busy with political struggles with its national economy on the verge of collapse, and people from the mainland were desperately trying to smuggle themselves into Hong Kong just to live a normal life. It was better for Chinese people to be treated unequally in the colony than to be discriminated against by their own people. During the Cultural Revolution, in creating a status society, people were grouped and systematically identified into the “Five Black Categories,” while those from good backgrounds were given preferential treatment. In the 1960s and 1970s, many people smuggled their way to Hong Kong in defiance of the systemic discrimination policy implemented by the Party.

When the democratic elections in Hong Kong today have regressed to a level worse than that of the colonial Legislative Council in 1991, how can the people of Hong Kong be incited to hate the colonies? It is pathetic and shameful that those in power think that patriotism can be developed by instilling a sense of hatred at an early age, trying to replicate in 21st century Hong Kong the Boxer Rebellion of 120 years ago!

(Lau Sai-leung, political commentator)

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