Vicious personal attacks only hinder political discourse

Venom generated on campuses makes Tim Collard wonder if Hong Kong can retain its well-deserved title as one of the world's most civilized places

All observers of Hong Kong are aware that the temperature of politics has risen in the past couple of years with disagreements intensifying on all sides, as is quite proper for people who take the issues seriously and given our freedom of expression. But some recent developments have been simply breathtaking for their gratuitous viciousness, and are inexplicable.

The comments posted on some university notice boards concerning the recent suicide of the son of Undersecretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin have been quite shockingly cruel. Yes, we know that Choi is identified with the pro-establishment camp, and that many students are opposed to this tendency; we know that, irrespective of politics, it is a common factor in all countries and regions for students to be at odds with the educational authorities; young people are always inclined to be rebellious, either against their parents or against the authorities most directly engaged with them. But such personal attacks on an official coping with the most appalling domestic tragedy - any parent knows that the loss of a child, especially to suicide, is the worst thing imaginable - take such phenomena to a wholly different plane.

That there is a degree of social unrest and generational conflict in a free society such as Hong Kong is no surprise. There are important issues at stake and it is quite right that people should have strong feelings about them. But, if feelings are running so high as to eclipse the most fundamental human sympathies, something is going very wrong.

The trouble is that this is not an entirely new phenomenon in Hong Kong. We saw signs of it in the comments made on the difficulties suffered by the daughter of former chief executive Leung Chun-ying.

All over the world the tone of public comment on political issues is becoming more strident. A review of readers' commentaries on Western media outlets can be quite horrifying in the savagery of the tone employed, and the world of social media has become notorious for its lack of basic humanity displayed by many commentators.

But it is rare for messages of hatred to be displayed so blatantly as they have been in Hong Kong in recent weeks. It has massively complicated the debate over free speech; even the most committed proponents of free speech have found some of its recent manifestations difficult to defend. No one, anywhere in the world, irrespective of their political views, wants to see a situation emerging in which Chinese people are tearing each other's throats out again, as has happened in the civil wars and unrest of the past. Least of all those friends of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, such as myself, who put years of effort into making the 1997 transition work.

And my argument is not purely, though it is mainly, a moral one. What do the people who are unleashing such venom against poor Choi think they will achieve? Politics is about winning friends and influencing people. It is a matter of expanding your support base by appealing to those who are not yet convinced of the rightness of your position, but who may be convinced if they are impressed by your personal integrity and the strength of your arguments. No one - absolutely no one - is going to be impressed or positively influenced by people who make attacks on a mother who has lost her son. You will end up in a noisy and embattled small group of people who all agree with each other anyway, with no hope of expanding your numbers. If you believe in democracy, what on earth is the point of that?

I would hope that everyone responsible for these comments would get together, ask for an appointment at the Education Bureau, and make a humble apology, together with sincere expressions of sympathy, to Choi. By all means make the point that you are opposed to her bureau's policies, but promise that the debate will be kept within the bounds of rational discussion, civility and mutual respect.

One of the major themes in the current politics of Hong Kong and the mainland is unity. Unity among Hong Kong residents, unity among Chinese people, and above all unity among human beings. Even as a foreigner I have always seen Hong Kong, despite its excessive exuberance and teeming population density, as one of the most civilized places on earth. Please, please, keep it that way.

The author is a sinologist, writer, columnist and former British diplomat in Beijing.

(HK Edition 09/14/2017 page7)