tim's experiment

The funny thing about the Chief Executive’s “meet the public” session in Tin Shui Wai was that if you were a mere member of the public it was quite difficult to get in. Buried in the Post’s pre-piece was the interesting snippet that more than half the seats were spoken for in advance. They were wanted for “aides and the media”. This is of course nonsense., There is no need for hordes of aides to sit in the hall and the media can stand at the back as they do on other occasions. Clearly someone wished to ensure that the dwindling ranks of Leung admirers were well represented among the questioners.

And so it came about that one of the people in the audience wanted to express concern about the effect on her children of the discovery that a primary school teacher had sworn at a policeman. Mr Leung effortlessly dragged this easy ball onto his own wicket, “The Education Bureau should submit a report that is fair and impartial on whether the series of incidents would have an effect on our teachers, teaching quality and youngsters,” he said, “It would be a surprise if the government did not take an interest in an incident which has aroused public concern.”

According to another newspaper the Education Bureau is already in contact with the school where the teacher concerned works. Who is there to contact in the middle of August, one wonders. The vice-chairman of Education Convergence, Mr Ho Hon-kuen, said the Chief Executive should leave the matter to the Council on Professional Conduct in Education.

Now look, people, criticising the police, with or without obscenities, is clearly an expression of opinion on a matter of public interest. It is an exercise of the free speech promised to Hong Kongers by the Joint Declaration, the Basic Law, the Bill of Rights Ordinance and (just for a giggle) the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. A teacher outside the classroom and on holiday is no more answerable to the Education Bureau, the Chief Executive or the Council on Professional Conduct in Education than anyone else. She is free to say and do whatever she likes within the law, like a policeman on pre-retirement leave.

I suppose some people will wonder if they want their children to get the idea that it is OK to swear at policemen. But it would be an odd arrangement if this was a test for members of a profession who are allowed to teach lurid notions about gay sex, antediluvian superstitions about contraceptives, and pseudo-scientific claptrap about the dinosaurs lasting until 2,000 years ago.

Actually the police force must take some of the blame for the present rather delicate state of its relations with much of the public. The force has vigorously resisted for years the notion that it should be renamed a police service. They want to be a paramilitary force. I have never been able to find a substantial reason for this preference beyond a childish enthusiasm for fun with guns, but there it is. A paramilitary force is by its nature close to the line which separates it from an occupying army. People do not confuse policemen with monks or social workers because that is the force’s wish. Hard words go with the territory.

If the policemen who work on demonstrations are upset at being sworn at I have a constructive suggestion. Whenever I am stopped for speeding or some other traffic trivia the policeman delivering the ticket is pleasantly surprised that I do not swear at him and often says so. So we should let the traffic cops do the demonstration duty. They’re used to being sworn at.

Meanwhile let us note the rampant hypocrisy being deployed in this area. A few weeks ago I wrote about the case of a primary school teacher who committed an indecent assault and was merely bound over. Those who are bound over admit the facts of the case. Not a word from anyone about the desirability of having a primary school teacher who engaged in drunken gropings of female strangers. The Chief Executive called for no reports, the Education Bureau did not volunteer one, the school said it was a private matter and the Council on Professional Conduct in Education was mute. I infer that this whole swearing at police thing is a political potion brewed up by DAB pilot fish to embarrass people they disapprove of and defend the right of left-wing thugs to disrupt other people’s meetings and protests. Shame on the lot of you. Or as we teachers apparently say these days, f*** you!