There happened an incident at the Baptist University (BU) days ago of some students storming into the school's Language Centre and hurling insults at teachers. BU president Roland Chin Tai-hong announced yesterday that student union president Lau Tsz-kei and Andrew Chan Lok-hang, a Chinese medicine student, would be temporarily suspended from their studies.
The incident happened in a corner of the BU campus and was an internal affair of the school to begin with. But exposure of the incident with video footage has aroused deep concern in society. This is not because people have too much leisure time, but because certain incidents on university campuses and some students' words and deeds in recent years have gone so far that the public feels shocked and unacceptable.
During this incident at BU, as seen on the footage, Lau Tsz-kei and another doze or so students forced their way into the office of the Language Centre, shouting and hurling abuse mixed with Cantonese swear words at several teachers including a foreign lady. Their attitude was rude and disgusting.
One can see from this incident how bankruptcy discipline, morality and sense of responsibility in a university, known as a palace of knowledge, have collapsed into. Just because these students were not satisfied with certain rule set by school authorities, they could have acted like the evil forces fighting at dark-night Mong Kok to storm into an office without appointment or agreement beforehand, demanding teachers to answer their questions. When the teachers were a little bit slow in response, they were threatened with foul language. In these students' eyes, whatever the Way of Great Learning to take the rules of propriety very reverently, whatever is meant to show common sense and reasonableness and to respect teachers and their teachings, and even the minimal due respect to their school, all are rubbish that can be trampled underfoot. Such irresponsible persons' rude and vulgar words and deeds are worlds apart from the quality a university student should have. In the past, the term of "a university student" was quite "valuable". When parents were telling their relatives or friends their children were university students, they would have appeared as if they were also honoured. But today, the pronouncement of this term no longer would attract others' envious sights, but on the contrary it could be taken as a synonym of "a trouble maker" to arouse suspicion and ridicule.
Needless to say, it is unfair for the reputation of university students as a whole to be spoiled by the evil deeds of a small number of trouble makers. But "one bad apple spoils the whole barrel". Nowadays, it is an undisputable fact and a problem to be squarely addressed that a number of university students' words and deeds have led society to downgrade university students and tertiary education.
More importantly, the evil deeds of some university students before our eyes are not as simple as just using foul language with a disgusting attitude, but are concerning one's recognition and orientation being a Chinese and a young person in the SAR. Ignorance and rudeness can be corrected through teaching. But if one harbours resistance and prejudice in his heart, and regards the society he lives in including the SAR Government and university authorities as his "foe" and his own nation and the Central Government's jurisdiction as his "enemy", and will feel satisfied only by resisting and opposing them, then his words and deeds in nature are not simply out of ignorance and rudeness but give a serious provocation and attack to the nation's constitutional system and the Basic Law as well as to the rule of law in the SAR. This is intolerable.
This BU incident on the surface is about using offensive language but in fact targets at the school's regulation that a student cannot graduate without qualified Putonghua proficiency. So its nature is as plain as the nose on one's face. If school authorities set a regulation that a student cannot graduate without qualified English proficiency, would Lau Tsz-kei and his ilk have stormed into an office to angrily point an accusing finger at teachers? The active parts played by Lau Tsz-kei, Andrew Chan and others in the law-breaking Occupy Central and street demonstrations are also there for everyone to see.
Some students must be deal with in accordance with the law for their evil behaviour that violates laws and disciplines, and universities must not become a "hotbed" for anti-China and trouble-making elements. The incident is serious in nature, so it must be faced squarely and dealt with seriously. 25 January 2018
