August 24, 2011
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港大、鄉村大學
在新聞讀到港大學生會會長李子樹在大學開學日致新生的演辭中道歉，理由是未能在與儲君李克強會面時表達反對意見，感到有些奇怪，於是將李整篇講辭找來從頭到尾讀完一遍。讀畢後，比起以上事件的因由始末，更令我印象深刻的，是港大和我所畢業的鄉村大學，當中的自我意識和自我期許的文化差異。
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Speech made by President of the Hong Kong University Students’ Union at the Inauguration Ceremony on 24/ 8 (Stance of the Union Executive Committee concerning 818 Centenary Celebration Ceremony)
Professor Young, Professor Tsui, Mr. Choi, Dr. Chau, Ladies and Gentlemen, fellow students and guests, welcome to the Inauguration Ceremony, our very first formal University gathering for all new students. On behalf of the whole Students’ Union, which you would maintain very close contact with throughout your university years, I hereby extend my warmest welcome to all of you in joining this one big family.
HKUSU is a home to all students. It is where we belong, it is where we rule and shine in. As students, we are at the best position to learn and yield for success here. As many of you would soon discover that as you take up roles of responsibilities in different teams, clubs and societies, this will be the very place where we can learn and yield for success. Fear for failures is not a common characteristic of HKU students, for we are here to learn. We might reach high or we might fall hard, but at the end of the day, we would pick ourselves up, heads high, try again and improve to succeed.
While some of you might be aware of the recent controversy caused by the visit of the Vice-Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council to the University’s Centenary Ceremony, I would like to take this opportunity to reassert the importance of our university and its student bodies to uphold and live out the values of democracy, liberty and high autonomy within the university.
As this is a really controversial and heatly-debated topic, to accommodate all students and general public, I would like to use both Chinese and English alternatively to address this issue. [Chinese equivalent skipped] As a free and open university cultivating diversity and accepting different views and opinions, it ought not to categorize guests according to their political stance. History has its own precedent that different political figures and representatives had come up on this stage before and visited our university as guests, for example the former Singapore Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and the enlightening leader of human rights, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi. On 18th of August, Mr. Li Keqiang was initially just another guest with a political background. The controversial unrest and gist of the whole problem lie not in his identity but in the on-day arrangements for his visit, including his seating arrangements, the selective exclusion of students, the out-of-reach protest area and the violence and abuse of power by the police force in suppressing students’ voices. I hereby represent the Students’ Union to strongly condemn the highly inappropriate measures and decisions taken on that day.
[Chinese equivalent skipped] Some questioned my presence at the Centenary Exhibition, as my role of the day was to illustrate the life and history of Dr. Sun Yat Sen to the university. I must reinstate that HKUSU’s firm stance on vindicating an official rehabilitation of the June Fourth movement would not be altered in any way because its President attended this Centenary event to explain and address certain parts of Dr. Sun’s life history in a short 30 seconds’ time. Nonetheless, I apologize. I apologize not for my courtesy and demeanor in treating our guest; I apologize for the limited time given on that day which did not allow me enough opportunity to share and illustrate HKUSU’s student movements in the past decades. All I was able to share in the 30 seconds’ time was that Dr. Sun, being our prominent alumni, had successfully overthrown the thousand-year dictating monarchy in China and the principles of democracy and freedom that he had proclaimed decades ago were also rightly the very principles which our Students’ Union today has and will always uphold throughout generations. Dr. Sun had achieved promising academic results since young; together with his fellow schoolmates, he had given a silver cup, one of the key exhibits on that day, to the founding Dean of the Faculty of Medicine to express his gratitude and respect for teachers and mentors.
[Chinese equivalent skipped] To be honest with you, I have never planned to take the opportunity of this short meeting time to put forward any loud protest or even to attack him in any way; for I represent the courtesy, demeanor and image of HKU students, I would always maintain the proper behavior, style and character that mature individuals will always have in all occasions. I will join protests, I will participate in demonstrations, I will attend candlelight vigils, I will clean the Pillar of Shame, but I will also attend university events when student participation ought to be involved. It is really all about doing the right things at the right time for the right cause with the right demeanor. For these are all my duties. Just as our Black Ribbon Action against the 8.18 incident today, while our current students and alumni may voice out and protest outside this hall, we maintain silence in this hall to respect this ceremony and demonstrate the demeanor and courtesy that students of this university have. Ever since the first day when I was elected, I have never swayed away from this path for once. However, as I have said in the Inauguration Ceremony of HKUSU in April, I would accept criticisms and as a President, I grow and improve myself by listening and adopting fellow students’ opinions.
[Chinese equivalent skipped] HKU has always been and should always be a free and open place and forum for intellectual exchanges, sharing and accepting different views and opinions, appreciating the flourish of important freedoms of speech and press as well as upholding academic freedom. As pillars of tomorrow, we could not accept such valuable freedoms and autonomy be undermined in any possible way. In face of such crisis and losing our freedom and rights, HKUSU, shall, as our motto reiterates, unite ourselves against all external forces and fight for our autonomy no matter what it costs. As your President, I will do the right things at the right time for the right cause with the right demeanor expected of me. May I reiterate once again, our core principles of democracy, liberty and high autonomy with full respect to human rights are not to be undermined by any person in any way. And HKUSU, shall fight to uphold these rights. You have my words. Thank you.
