By Sunny Sun, Crystal Lim, Sophia Sheng and Jade Zhou
Hong Kong University's Student union failed to elect a proper leadership this year influenced by political stance, as well as other Hong Kong universities, with only three out of eleven having a formal student union in year 2019.
The last candidate committee of Hong Kong University has expressed pro-establishment political views on some sensitive issues, which were opposed by the students. They expressed their support for the settlement of Hong Kong government to 2016 Hong Kong LegCo candidates' disqualification controversy and national anthem bill.
According to South China Morning Post, Furges Leong, the former Hong Kong University student union external affairs secretary said, "The candidates gave off the feeling that they will just accept the government’s decision and not challenge it."
Coincidentally, the cabinet of Hong Kong Shue Yan University was also opposed by the students due to their neutral political stance. Shue Yan University student union’s former external vice president, Chan Yuk Hin thinks that neutral political stance opposed the initial spirit of their student union which is democratic and self-control.
According to HK01, Chan said, “The establishment of Shue Yan University student union is a result of political resistance, they always have a strong social movement tradition. If student union uphold a neutral political stance, they need to give an explanation to our students.”
Besides, student union in other universities have their own different reasons for their failure in finding successor. Sam Yu, the president of current year student union committee of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) concluded three reasons while expressing his opinion on this phenomenon including student union’s failed advertising strategy, student’s low voting rate and student’s wrong impression of student union.
"Sometimes student thinks that being a member of student union, meaning they need to put much effort and focus on political issues. They worried if their future will be affected once they express their political stance, " said Sam Yu.
(Source: SU Facebook Pages)
However, as the chart displays, the trend of failing to elect a proper student union actually started to climb since year 2018, while the situation has been quite positive before this.
After the failure of umbrella movement in year 2014, in which students occupied central and fought for "true universal suffrage", local student unions, which support the Hong Kong independence, with the slogan "we are not Chinese, we are Hong Kong people"occupied the mainstream of Hong Kong universities. The student unions in Hong Kong Universities have also reached a high tide period in two years until year 2016.
The turning point occurs since year 2016 when various social movements received a massive suppression such as the failure of umbrella movement, protestors being jailed including the judgement of nine key leaders of Hong Kong’s occupy movement and the Hong Kong Legislative Council members' oath-taking controversy also called the DQ incident.
As student and social movement frequently frustrated, students attitude towards Hong Kong politics have also becoming more and more discouraging. "Many people, including students feel the powerlessness after year 2016, there have been many regimes suppressing one after another," said Lui Tin Yan, the present external vice president of Chinese University student union. The political apathy among universities‘ students lead to the reduction of optimism in student union election or voting participation.
According to HK01, Chan said: " Many Hong Kong people feel hopeless, they failed to defend the democratic political system, the new generation do not want to involve in the politics."
Sources:
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2184815/university-hong-kong-students-vote-massively-against-all
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2018/12/19/students-protest-hong-kong-shue-yan-university-takes-control-student-union-office/
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2048735/no-reason-stay-no-way-go-many-hong-kongs