tim's experiment

Now what have we here, a new youth movement? Well sort of. Weird story in Monday’s Post of an event the previous day: a new youth group had been inaugurated in the PLA naval base on Stonecutters Island (which is of course no longer an island) but only selected media (Wen Wei Po and CCTV) were actually allowed in to watch. There were plenty of other people there though, we were told. C.Y. Leung was there, the director of the Liaison Office was there, along with the Education Secretary and the chairman of the Youth Commission, one Bunny Chan Chung-bun. Mrs Leung, who goes for official purposes by the name of Regina Tong Ching-yee, was also present, and according to the Post’s source — the lucky reporter from Wen Wei — is the group’s “commander-in-chief”.  The organisation behind this happy event, a non-profit company called the Hong Kong Army Cadets Association, had been registered the previous Thursday, which seems to be cutting things a bit fine. This meant, though, that the group’s articles of association were available to reportorial reading, and they included to “encourage the youth of Hong Kong to be aware of their responsibilities and obligations as Chinese citizens.” To join you have to be aged over six. The Post’s report came with a picture of some young things on a bus, wearing a green uniform with a shoulder badge advertising the “Hong Kong Army Cadets”. It seems that little thought has been bestowed on the uniform, which follows the lamentable local practice of including a beret as headgear, despite this titfer being totally unsuitable to our climate. A few other details: Tung Chee-hwa (yes, that one) is the group’s Hon President. Mrs Tung is an honourary adviser, whatever that means. The group has three Honorary Patrons: C.Y. Leung, Liaison Office honcho Zhang, and the PLA garrison commander, Major General Tan Benhong. Bunny Chan of the Youth Commission doubles as the chairman. Lots of top people on the notepaper, then.

The following day, though, it appeared that they hadn’t actually got round to many members yet. The 200 “members” who turned up were not all members, if indeed any of them were, the Post reported. One young person, named Jackie, said he had been recruited via a Facebook posting on a page for people who had been to a PLA summer camp. The recruiting was being done by non-profit group called the Concerted Efforts Resource Centre. The deal was that if you participated in the opening ceremony you could keep the uniform. Another non-member said that 120 people from his school had attended on the understanding that they were spectators. The Post had tried without success to contact Tai Tak-fung, the president of Concerted Efforts. He is, surprise surprise, a businessman and member of the CPPCC … and a director of the Cadets Association.

Clearly this was not quite the sort of public launching that the people behind this interesting effort had in mind. So on Tuesday some explanation was attempted. C.Y. Leung, we were told, had defended the proceedings, saying that it was everybody’s duty to “serve the motherland”, as members of the association had sworn to do. This was the first indication that the assembled non-members, or some of them, had been swearing strange oaths. We were also offered an extended interview with Chairman Bunny. Mr Chan is something of a political landmark: as well as chair of Youth Commission, he is chair of Kwun Tong DB, Jockey Club member, textiles, JP, Bauhinia Baubles in two colours … the usual stuff. This extensive career of social climbing has not taught Mr Chan the art of coming up with plausible excuses. The association chose the PLA naval base for their performance because it was rent-free, he said, and the consequent restriction on press admission was an unfortunate consequence of that. As if an association with CY, the liaison office and a full cast of local sycophants on board could not have found a free playground somewhere to which the public has access.

According to Mr Chan the association was formed by “young people who took part in a military summer camp for Hong Kong youth”. How they managed to recruit him, Mr and Mrs Leung, Mr and Mrs Tung, The Secretaries for Security and Education, General Tan and the Liaison Office godfather he did not explain. Nor did he explain who had paid for 200 uniforms. He did say that “several dozen” people had been sworn in, all of whom were university students. The summer camp graduates had “learned marching skills in the camp and wanted to impart the skills to young people so they could get fit and strong,” said Mr Chan.

The China Daily, meanwhile, put a more explicitly political cast on the matter.”Through drills and training camps, the new voluntary uniformed youth group aims to promote civic awareness,”  it said on Monday, adding cheerfully that this was the city’s “first uniformed youth group to follow Chinese foot drill protocols.”

So what have we here? Well it seems that about 200 young things turned up on Sunday, at least 120 of whom were Form One students where were bussed in to make up the numbers but were kitted out in the group’s uniform. Of the remaining 80 or so some were part of the scenery but something in excess of 36 took the oath, whatever it was. Some of us feel safer not taking C.Y. Leung’s word for anything. Mr Chan did not really explain how the association had brought together a group of young people who wanted to help other youngsters to “get fit and strong” with a band of local patriotic worthies who wanted to use drill to promote civic awareness. So we are I think entitled to feel a certain suspicion is warranted about who wooed who.

However we can now consider the important question raised by all this, which is does Hong Kong need another y0uth group devoted to the joys of foot drill, and if so is this association a plausible way of providing such a thing. Now foot drill, in anyone’s protocol, is a tricky topic. Some people, of whom I am one, quite enjoy doing it. Others, of whom I am also one, enjoy watching it. However apart from its merits as entertainment, foot drill is a dubious area. It was a life-and-death battlefield skill until about 1870. It now has no practical purpose outside itself. Some people say it inculcates discipline and team spirit, though whether these qualities transfer themselves off the parade ground is not clear, and is perhaps unknowable. Some people say that units which are good at drill are also good at fighting, but this is probably because they care enough to want to be good at everything they do. For the organisers of basic military training foot drill has the merit of being easy to arrange, time-consuming and permitting a very high ratio of students to instructors. Nobody has ever suggested that it promotes “civic awareness”. It is, though, surprisingly (at least to me) popular with youth and other uniformed groups in Hong Kong. This covers not only the explicitly paramilitary ones like the Boys Brigade or the Adventure Corps (which used to be a British Army off-shoot) but also organisations devoted primarily to good works like the Scouts, Saint Johns, the Red Cross, and the Civil Aid Services. They all want to do passing out parades modeled on the Police ones, which in turn are modeled on the British Army ones. I suppose this is harmless enough. Certainly it means that the supply of foot drill opportunities for young people probably already exceeds the demand.

As well as foot drills we are also to be offered “camps”, and this brings me to another matter. Frankly if the association is going to stick to university students they can do what they like. Students are adults who can look after themselves. If on the other hand they are going to recruit members from age six up, then other questions arise. When I was a youth leader (no names, no packdrill, but we Did Our Best) we were not allowed out unsupervised until we had done a succession of  training courses spread over two years, with further specialist modules required if you wanted to take the kids away on camp or other residential holidays. Skills are required and problems come up which people outside the education business will not have met before. It is nice to know that these people have the Secretary for Education and the chairman of the Youth Commission on side but is there anyone involved who has actually been a youth leader of any kind before? I know there has been a lot of enthusiasm for flag-raising groups in left-wing circles since the government started subsidising youth groups, but at least they are based in schools, and presumably run by teachers whose skill and morals are subject to some monitoring.

Well the Army Cadets may turn out to be a Potemkin youth group intended only for the entertainment of CCTV viewers, in which case no harm will be done. Certainly the curiously shy approach adopted so far does not resemble a recruiting drive. However, if the association is going to be a full-fledged youth group catering for all ages and both sexes then I hope the organisers will remember Edith Cavell’s immortal words: “patriotism is not enough.”