Hypocrisy, double standard

The revelation by former NSA and CIA employee Edward Snowden that the US government has been violating the privacy of people around the world via the Internet for years has triggered global outrage and attracted waves of condemnation. In sharp contrast, the always publicity-hungry opposition showmen here have been uncharacteristically quiet about US electronic surveillance of computer networks in Hong Kong.

Those faces of the opposition parties never failed to grab the spotlight over human rights, justice and whatnot until now. They have been trumpeting "Occupy Central" in the name of "genuine universal suffrage" very hard lately but have yet to let the public know their own stand on Hong Kong residents' rights in this case. This goes to show just how politically cheap and hypocritical they really are.

As the representative body of popular will in Hong Kong the Legislative Council (LegCo) is obligated to demand justice on behalf of local citizens with a motion of condemnation and demand that Washington tell the whole truth about PRISM, apologize for such unconscionable acts and promise it will never invade Hong Kong residents' online privacy again.

Always the first to cry foul in public when something happens on the Chinese mainland that concerns human rights and/or privacy, those opposition front men let the world see their double standard by remaining silent over the US violation of Hong Kong citizens' rights and online privacy this time. On the other hand, they are still going gaga about "Occupy Central" and openly urging people to support their attempt to hurt Hong Kong's economy by paralyzing its political and financial nerve center, all in the name of "genuine universal suffrage", political rights and justice. This shows they maintain a double standard on the rule of law as well.

The US government has been trampling people's privacy in the name of national security; while the opposition camp here plans to harm Hong Kong's economy and people's livelihood by illegally staging "Occupy Central" to paralyze the city's political and financial center in the name of democracy. We can safely say they are soul mates in the hypocrites department.

This is an excerpted translation of a Wen Wei Po editorial published on June 19.

Lau Kwok-fan

Prioritize local kids

The number of children born in Hong Kong to non-local parents from the mainland ("non-local" children) has increased sharply from just 620 in 2001 to 35,700 last year, with the accumulated total exceeding 200,000 to date. As those children grow up, many of them now come to Hong Kong per their parents' choice for pre-school, elementary and secondary education, adding significant pressure on Hong Kong's education system. School networks close to the Shenzhen boundary, such as North and Yuen Long districts, are pressed for places due to the growing number of applications from "non-local" children. Currently more than 4,000 children living in Shenzhen cross the boundary for school on a daily basis, more than 1,000 of them in Yuen Long alone.

This academic year 27,000 children have applied for school places under the Primary One Admission System (POA), 900 more than last year and accounting for more than 10 percent of the total. With competition increasingly fierce as a result of significantly more applicants in recent years, only 68.2 percent of them landed one of the three choices. This is the first time in the last 12 years the success rate has dropped below 70 percent. It also means some 200 children who applied for schools in North District now have to go further south everyday for school in Tai Po District, a heavy addition to their daily excursion with taxing effect on health and school work.

More alarming is the fact that more than 4,000 small children living in Shenzhen now attend daytime kindergartens in North District, while 1,600 and 1,200 are also enrolled in Yuen Long and Tuen Mun districts, respectively. Most if not all of them are expected to continue their education in Hong Kong, making it even more difficult to find a school place closer to Shenzhen.

To ease the pressure on elementary schools in North District from boundary-crossing children from Shenzhen, we have suggested the enrollment principle that locals are admitted first and assigned schools in the same district they live in. It is aimed at securing schools places for local kids. As for their "non-local" counterparts, we propose the government designates school networks for "non-locals" only by allocating the remaining places in northern schools, after the locals' demands are met, to "non-local" applicants.

The author is a standing director of the New Territories Association of Societies and North District councillor. This is an excerpted translation of his article published in Hong Kong Commercial Daily on June 18.

(HK Edition 06/20/2013 page9)