Justice

​

Dr. Hon. C. H. Cheung

 

Please click here for the audio summary

 

For the 165th Anniversary Exhibition Day, We invited an alumnus, Dr. Cheung Chiu Hung, a politician who is an activist in upholding justice, to share with us his student life at St. Paul’s College and his thoughts about justice in the Hong Kong society.

 

School Life – enjoyable days

The first word that came to his mind was ‘liberty’ and apparently it is something Paulines would be proud of.  He recalled his classmates having eye-catching hairstyles, swearing and even fighting. In fact, some of his classmates even wore bell-bottom trousers and smoked, both of which were considered to be rebellious acts at the time.  Despite the lack of regulations, he learnt how to be responsible of his own actions, as he understood that he had to be self-disciplined to achieve his goals.  He recalled spending lots of time on ball games during his days at SPC but then realized that he needed to study for his future and for a living.  The school promotes the core value such that by giving us freedom, we could shape ourselves into anyone as we desire to but not who others want us to be. SPC was like university for him, and students in those days were from different backgrounds and strived and shined in different areas, which made their school life enjoyable.

 

Why Politics? His inspiration

Dr. Cheung moved on to the United States to further his studies after completing secondary school at St Paul’s.  During his stay in the United States, he was particular unsatisfied with the systems there.  When he returned to Hong Kong, the Government was planning to use those systems in Hong Kong.  The politicians in America who strived to ban the policy from being implied inspired him; as a result he decided to be a politician.  What makes this interesting is that he never thought of being a politician when he was small, yet he had thought of being a social worker.

 

From Direct Subsidy Scheme to Equal Opportunity

As Dr. Cheung elaborated more on why he became a politician, he spoke about the injustice within a scope we are more familiar with – education.  He expressed his opinion about Direct Subsidy Schools (DSS), of which St Paul’s College is also a part of.  It is observed that good schools in Hong Kong are mostly DSS schools. The exorbitant fees of DSS schools eliminate poorer students from better schools. Dr. Cheung believes that students from poor families should have an equal opportunity to receive better education, and as such, the DSS should be abandoned as a policy altogether.  According to a research by The Hong Kong Institute of Education IED  (currently The Education University of Hong Kong)  two years ago, wealthier families’ children have a greater chance to study in university because they received better education.  The DSS Policy and expensive school fees enable wealthier students to have a better chance with obtaining higher education.  Therefore, according to Dr. Cheung, scholarships for disadvantaged students are only a remedial policy and not of great help.

 

There is a correlation between a school’s resources and teacher profile with the reputation of schools.  This puts some public schools and subsidized schools at a great disadvantage.  These schools may lack resources and facilities.  As a result, a few of schools lack students and may have to cut down classes, expenses or even risk closing down. “This hurts the morale of education workers.” Cheung said. Education workers aspired to brighten the futures of students but have sadly become the sacrifice under unfair education.

 

Dr. Cheung thinks that the current admissions methods are the cause of inequality in our education system.  The education bureau should delegate autonomy to all schools and remove the DSS policy.  The government should also put more resources into subsidized schools to improve their teaching quality and promote inclusive education to help the disabled.

 

Justice under the budget philosophy of HKSAR Government

To Dr. Cheung, the concept of justice is to help the needy and exert all possible effort to penalize and reward fairly.  In Hong Kong, government policies are tilted to developing the economy more than social welfare as only 20% of Hong Kong’s fiscal budget goes to welfare expenditure.  However, a significant amount of the money goes to infrastructure.  Dr. Cheung finds this laughable as in the United States and most of the European countries, they allocate 40 to 50% of their fiscal budget to social welfare.  These figures show the injustice condition hidden in the root of our systems.  In Hong Kong, the social welfare system is lagging behind.  Not only is the minimum wage set at a low standard that, our elderly policies are outdated.  He thinks that our society is injustice.

 

He further explained that as a legislator, the government will use all their effort to safeguard the progress of infrastructure, yet they refuse to spend more on social welfare.  The Hong Kong government is well known for having a lot of reserve capital, as such, his proves that the government has the ability to solve the urgent social problems but they waste them on the long-dragging infrastructures.  The lack of direction on policy making undermines the importance of improving social welfare.

 

Dr.  Cheung believes that the philosophy of “big market, small government” is outdated. It is time to tap more resources on social welfare as, the mild market intervention and fiscal policies are generally accepted.

 

Lastly, to link with our theme this year, Dr. Cheung noted that the government has not tried their best to assist local students especially the disadvantaged ones. For example, Norwegian exchange students received pocket money while local students struggled to buying regular meals.  According to Cheung, the lack of direction in setting education policies create the lack of university places , and the government can and should put more emphasis and resources into social welfare.

 

Message for Paulines 

As a legislator, Dr. Cheung urges St Paul’s students to be inquisitive about social issues so that we can develop our own thoughts and opinions.  Inspired by American politicians, he has been helping a lot of people since he started his political career in the US during the late 80s.   In addition, he emphasized that “[w]e should always be caring to others”, we should treat others how we want others to treat us.   Lastly, he encouraged us to uphold the liberty in St. Paul’s which we would be proud of and live our own life, make our own choices and walk our own path.

 

Undoubtedly, we have learnt a lot about Dr. Cheung through this interview, from his school life to what he wishes and his message to us all.  Perhaps the road to real justice would be a long one but if we care about each other more, we could contribute a bit to this vision.  Dr. Cheung upholds the core value of St. Paul’s College, “All for each and each for all” and gives a helping hand to everyone in need. We wish Dr. Cheung all the best for the future. 

 

Writer: Cheng Vincent (5E)