Hong Kong Army Cadets Association will alienate more people than it attracts
Despite its chairman's almost whimsical aim to help young people get fit through marching , the establishment of the Hong Kong Army Cadets Association is disturbing at a practical and symbolical level, due to secrecy, exclusivity verging on nepotism and its PLA orientation.
Most countries respect their armed forces, and help young people understand their workings. Upper-class educational priorities may figure - see the UK and US officer training corps; or simple adventure and public service may be the ethos, as allegedly in the Hong Kong Army Cadets Association; or national service may be required, as in Taiwan or Singapore.
In Hong Kong, defence is a matter reserved for the motherland, but two official organisations, the Hong Kong Air Cadet Corps and the Hong Kong Adventure Corps carried on after 1997. Both are now charitable bodies. The Air Cadet Corps has 3,000 cadets aged 12 to 18 and targets young people interested in aviation (supported by Cathay Pacific). The Adventure Corps encourages a spirit of adventure in youth. Both are commanded by professionals and have military roots.
But not all armies are appreciated. The PLA gained the Chinese Communist Party victory in 1949, but was also complicit in the party's 20th-century historical mistakes. It is now deeply implicated in corruption.
Hong Kong's main problem is the PLA's unexamined and unrepentant crushing of the Tiananmen demonstrations on June 4, 1989. Other countries' errors in Vietnam, Northern Ireland and Iraq have been critically examined in detail. Not so Tiananmen by China.
So when our government seeks to link our youth to the PLA, with selective "transparency", and reportedly appoints as Hong Kong Army Cadets Association commander-in-chief a non-professional related to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, it sends negative signals.
To feel pride, one must be told the truth. Soldiers fight and die for their countries. They help in disasters and they are respected. The Unknown Soldier is their symbol. But any army as an institution must be honestly examined, assessed and understood for civil society to embrace its overwhelming military power as positive. C. Y. Leung doesn't understand this is impossible for the PLA in Hong Kong unless the twin issues of June 4 and corruption are dealt with. The Army Cadets Association initiative will alienate many more people than it attracts.
More foolishly, its set-up reinforces perceptions of an elite standing against the people.
