Comic book for students raises indoctrination fears among parents

A comic book handed out to primary schools to promote the Basic Law has renewed fears over mainland indoctrination, a concern group said on Wednesday.

The Chinese-language comic, entitled Primary Student Handbook of the Basic Law of Hong Kong, is published by the Joint Committee for the Promotion of the Basic Law of Hong Kong. The committee is a prominent non-governmental group set up in the 1990s to promote the city’s mini-constitution.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, property tycoon Li Ka-shing and former justice secretary Elsie Leung Oi-sie are honorary advisers to the committee, according to a list on its website.

The committee said the booklet was “intended to show the key points of the Basic Law to primary school pupils through lively comics”.

But one mother whose daughter received a copy of the comic said much of it had no bearing on the subject of the Basic Law at all and she was concerned that the comic was being used to impart blind nationalism in the minds of the students.

“It can be a dangerous brainwashing tool. Children are too young to form judgment,” she said.