Hong Kong protest chaos drives departing Education University boss Frederick Ma to run character classes for young people

Education University chief Frederick Ma Si-hang has revealed he will step down after chaotic scenes during the anti-government protests in Hong Kong last year motivated him to embark on a new career offering free character classes to the city’s disadvantaged youth.

Mirroring his departure from the helm of railway giant MTR Corporation in 2018, he declined to stay as the university’s council chairman for another term despite an invitation from city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to do so.

In an interview with the Post, Ma said his decision to instead run education programmes instilling respect and other values in young people was largely triggered by what he had witnessed during the often-violent social unrest that erupted in June last year, despite his constant support for character education.

“These scenes struck me that Hong Kong needs better character education, especially for our third generation, where they can learn how to respect and to show gratitude,” he said, adding this had been taught well overseas but was not high on the agenda in the city.

“I’m not giving up on the university or the university students. But I see the need to nurture our younger generation with better character education,” the former commerce minister added.

Character education generally refers to teaching that nurtures and promotes the ethical, intellectual, social and emotional development of individuals.

Ma’s term as the council chairman expires on Friday but he agreed to stay until the end of this year to allow more time for the government to find a successor.

Taking the job at the teacher-training university three years ago, Ma said he accepted the appointment because he had learned from his own personal experience that good teachers could turn a young person’s life around.

“My academic performance was very poor when I was small. I met a good teacher in secondary school who helped me to improve and eventually entered the University of Hong Kong,” he said.

“There, I bumped into another good teacher Edward Chen Kwan-yiu.”

Chen received his doctorate in economics from Oxford University and was the president of Lingnan University.

Ma said he was saddened by several scenes before and during the anti-government demonstrations that were sparked by the now-withdrawn extradition bill.

In September 2017, a few months after taking office at the university, two students posted on the “democracy wall” at the campus, spelling out a message of “congratulations” to Undersecretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin, after her 25-year-old son plunged to his death from a residential tower.

Ma said at the time: “I would like to ask everyone in Hong Kong to answer one question: if they were parents, would they want their children to be educated by the two young people?”

The university conducted an investigation and the two students were sanctioned. “I was heartbroken,” Ma said.

Amid the wave of anti-government protests last year, EdU was the only publicly funded university which did not suffer major damage or vandalism.

High-profile universities in the city became a battleground between police and young demonstrators. Some teachers and university presidents tried to get involved and mediate.

Ma recalled his disappointment at seeing Baptist University students booing and heckling vice-presidents and professors of its school of communication, including head of journalism department Lau Chi-kuen who refused to condemn Hong Kong police over a campus reporter’s arrest back in September last year.

A month later at Chinese University, vice-chancellor Rocky Tuan Sung-chi had joss paper thrown at him in a meeting with students who demanded that he and the university condemned alleged police brutality.

While Ma’s daughter, Christine Ma-Lau, was known to offer character education to well-off families, Ma said he was striving for something different. He will also take over the chairmanship of a charity organisation Character Education Foundation set up in 2016 by his daughter.

“I hope to raise funds and offer free character education for children in poorer districts. We will partner with schools and send teachers there to offer free classes,” he said.

He added quitting the university would give him more time to concentrate on his new project and avoid conflict-of-interest accusations when fundraising.

“My heart still stays with education. Without good students, how can we have great leaders?”

In a letter to the university’s students addressing his departure, he said he took pride in his time as council chairman.

“It is also very pleasing to note that we are the youngest of the world’s top 20 QS-ranked universities in education,” he wrote. “All of these remarkable achievements could not have been possible without your unfailing support.”

MTR chairman says controversial comments were result of ‘hot weather’

But Ma’s time at the university was not without controversy.

When he was straddling chairmanships of the MTR and the Education University in 2018, a staff concern group at the university urged him to step down over his refusal to provide details of a derailment on the new express rail link to mainland China.

He later explained some information was internal and reassured the public that the firm would maintain a high degree of transparency.

Additional reporting by Lilian Cheng