Personal development, emphasised in the old curriculum, seems to have been largely overlooked by teachers, while students came to understand critical thinking as ‘finding fault with and criticising others’. Nurturing true critical thinking will ensure students neither blindly applaud the West’s adversarial political system nor praise the Chinese system without analysis.
We shouldn’t have to wait for the disease to disappear altogether before life can return to some semblance of normality. The incubation period for Covid-19 is up to 14 days. So, 28 days without local infections should be enough for a city to be declared safe.
Both ‘one country, two systems’ and the 1992 Consensus faltered because they failed to address people’s emotions, including fear. Both sides should agree to respect each other’s political system until one is conclusively proven superior.
The Philippines, despite its democratic institutions, ranks far below Hong Kong and China in the Rule of Law Index. Cases involving Hongkongers in Philippine jails should bring home that democracy is not always the answer.