Hong Kong governors and chief executives take different approaches on student criticism

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's attack on the student magazine Undergrad reminded one of its former editors of how very differently a colonial governor had tackled a similar situation.

Andrew Fung Ho-keung is now chief executive of the Policy Research Institute but in the 1960s he was editor-in-chief of Undergrad when the magazine, launched in 1952, had already earned a reputation for being critical of the government and had published student leaders' views on autonomy.

While Leung chose to kick off his policy address by condemning the "fallacies" in an article and a book about autonomy published by the magazine, in 1968 the then governor David Trench took a more subtle approach to defend his authority.

He sent in a piece entitled The Basic Nature of Government - an Article for Undergrad to explain his governing philosophy.

"Undergrad is a paper which not only concerns itself with matters of direct student interest but, as I am glad to see, with public affairs also," Trench wrote.

He said his article was intended to aid more constructive writing" and "help readers to evaluate what they read both here and, indeed, elsewhere".

Half a century on, Fung is still impressed. "The colonial government was more sophisticated in handling dissenting voices," said Fung. "Trench sent us his article obviously in response to our criticism of the colonial government." Leung would have been better following the ex-governor's lead, Fung added.