Mutual respect helps HK
Adispute between the Falun Gong and the Hong Kong Youth Care Association occurred in Mong Kok pedestrian-only zone a few weeks ago. People have different definitions of what constitutes a ‘fair and impartial manner”, therefore, it is always difficult to fulfill everyone’s expectations when it comes the management of the Hong Kong Police Force at the event. On that day, the handling of the dispute and how the police maintained order triggered a primary schoolteacher to shout foul language at the police officers. The teacher, Ms Lam Wai-sze, was inside the blockade zone when a policeman asked her to exit the zone. Lam was upset about the perceived bias and emotionally abused the police officers with insulting words. The process was videotaped and uploaded on the Internet. The video went viral and caused great controversy among the public.
People’s reactions towards the teacher’s act were rather extreme. People who are against it said flinging foul language in such a disrespectful manner was inappropriate and totally unacceptable for a schoolteacher. These people placed a funeral wreath outside Lam’s school to show their discontent, and claimed that she had failed to act as a role model for the students and should resign immediately. Ms Lam also has her supporters.
The video soon became a social topic, Lam made a public statement to solemnly apologize to the stakeholders of her school, such as parents, students and teachers. Subsequent to the release of Lam’s statement, I received a number of media phone calls asking my opinion on whether the apology was sincere.
I have a few comments. First, teachers are just ordinary people, people make mistakes at times. We all have emotions, and it is easy for us to act inappropriately when we are emotional. Our society demands that our teachers be flawless and we set unreasonably high expectations on them. A fault confessed is half redressed. If a person can learn from a mistake and try not to recommit the same error, why not show our trust and give him/ her a chance? Second, to make a public apology requires reflection and courage. It is the first step to admit one’s fault and should be supported. To predict or evaluate the intention of the teacher can bring unnecessary conflicts and harm to the related parties. And it is also not for outsiders to judge whether the apology of the teacher was sincere. Only the people who received the apology can comment on that. Third, the statement has an educational meaning to our next generation. Lam’s confession and apology proved her willingness to fix the problem. It was an essential message to the students: Emotions and hardships are never an excuse for us to use foul language or verbally abuse others.
However, I believe that the row would not have been stirred up in the way it is now if the schoolteacher had added an apology on her statement to the police officers who were insulted on that day. Recently, police officers have been frequently humiliated in public. People have been showing a high degree of dissatisfaction toward the enforcement of our police. Indeed, the police officers, not the school stakeholders, were directly insulted and humiliated by the schoolteacher.
If you were the parents of those police officers, how would you feel when you saw your son or daughter being humiliated because of maintaining public order? Mutual respect is what people nowadays lack and I am just wondering if the problem stems from poor education in schools or whether it is just the norm to politicize every single incident in Hong Kong.