Written By Haven Lo

Schools need to be places for the free exchange of opposing opinions.

I’m sure I don’t need to go too deep into the details of all that has happened in Hong Kong over the past eight months. Teargas was thrown, then rubber bullets, then real ones. From the other side came stones, then bricks, then molotovs. Online, words were thrown at each other, some logical, some illogical. 

It doesn’t matter which side you are on. I don’t care. There are many other articles on this newspaper which tells you all about which side you should support anyways.

All I ask is that you do care, and that you continue to do so.

Recently, the first election since the start of the protests took place. It was a landmark election for Hong Kong, where for the first time ever the Pan-Democrats took a majority in the local districts, and at a ratio of 4:1 in seats against the Pro-Beijing camp. Perhaps you have something to say about this. How the elections took place in unfair or nonideal  circumstances, maybe. Or maybe how the elections were rigged in favor of the Pan-Democrats, or even the other way around.

But what interested me was the voting turnout. 71 percent, which is up from 47 percent in 2015 and 41 percent in 2011. There have been stories of people in their fifties voting for the first time, and polling stations with lines wrapping around the block multiple times. People got to the polling stations as early as eight in the morning to make sure their vote counted. For once, Hong Kong spoke. And when Hong Kong does speak, it’s cries are deafening, being heard around the whole world.

It was against this backdrop when recently my advisor asked our advisory: what are you guys feeling about the current situation in Hong Kong? 

Some people glanced at one another, but went back to their own fiddlings. Others continued their conversations without paying much attention. A few even failed to look up from their phone, head down, shoulders hunched. 

I wasn’t expecting a full argument to arise, of course, but I expected some opinions to be expressed. Maybe not even anything political, just something about how they were feeling. But nothing came. In the end, things ended quite awkwardly.

Perhaps it was a bit naive of my advisor to expect people to just talk so openly about such a sensitive problem. But at the same time, should they not? This topic has been the focal point of everything that has happened socially in our lives since April earlier this year. I remember prior to the summer break, students and even some teachers would wear white ribbons to school as a way of showing solidarity. Some would talk very publicly about attending the protests, such as the one involving two million people in June. So what happened in between?

Perhaps people just got tired of it. After all, it has been eight months since the first controversies started, and maybe it’s hard to be committed to such a draining situation for that long. But as the election turnout showed, at least 71% of the voting population in Hong Kong cared enough to take their weekend off and walk to the nearest polling station to cast a vote towards a cause that’s doesn’t even directly shape the political landscape of Hong Kong that much.

“[School] should be a space where people further their own thoughts and thinking through discussion with people of contrasting opinions.”

I believe it’s more of a fear of confrontation that is at play. On the first day of the semester this year, Dr. Brown spoke directly to us on how the current political situation will be handled within the premises of the school. He said that the school wants discussion to be kept at a civilized level and conducted in a low-key manner. This was due to the fact that some students are children of police officers, and that he doesn’t want them targeted. And I perfectly agree with him here. No one should be attacked unfairly for their personal beliefs, especially when those beliefs don’t even belong to them directly. Yet, it is this culture of non-confrontation that has created a very suffocating environment in RCHK. 

Constantly, I feel as if people want to express their emotions and opinions, and schools should operate as a platform to facilitate discussion. There was one time when this did happen during ToK class: a twenty minute Socratic seminar on the usage of ethical theories to find solutions to political problems taking place within Hong Kong. Those twenty minutes were probably the most productive twenty minutes I have ever experienced in expanding my political open-mindedness, and it really changed my perspective on the whole situation in Hong Kong. To summarize what I learnt in those twenty minutes into half a paragraph would be too complicated, but if you ever see me in person I can directly explain to you what happened then.

My point is that people care. And people have really important things to say about them. When discussion exists on a level where people are willing to be open minded, where all opinions and statements are based on real facts and not prejudices, people learn. People understand. 

In school it might be important to be inclusive of all. But it is even more important to be educated on the things that shape our lives. School is the best opportunity for us as students, and not only students but teachers and the whole community to learn more about the people around us. It should be a space where people further their own thoughts and thinking through discussion with people of contrasting opinions. It is not a place where we are silent just because others may disagree with us or be offended by what we say.