Hong Kong (AsiaNews) Leaders of the Hong Kong Christian community (Methodists, Catholics, Anglicans) are set to sue the government of the territory in court for gross discrimination against Christian schools which are guilty of not accepting the new education law, approved in July last year (Education Ordinance 2004, EO).
The Department of Education, run by Arthur Lee, has drawn up a decree offering several benefits to schools which implement the EO swiftly. Benefits include: insurance for school personnel; flexibility in administration of funds; an annual bonus of around 350,000 Hong Kong dollars (around 35,000 Euros)
Christian churches, which run the majority and best-known schools in the territory, have criticised the new law for marginalising their educational role, and they are standing in the way of its implementation (which should be obligatory before 2008). The Department of Education proposal which is about to be debated in parliament appears to award those who implement the new law quickly, but it discriminates against those who are not ready to follow it. Christian representatives have defined the proposal as "discriminatory and racist".
According to some Catholics in Hong Kong, in using these benefits as a lure, the Education Department is boycotting Christians' obstructionism.
Catholic and Anglican bishops, as well as Methodist leaders, have criticised the decree and they are demanding that benefits be either cancelled or offered to all. Lawyers and jurists say the Christian community is right and that if the churches sue the government in court, they will surely win the case: the same EO admits that delay in implementation is legal. It is for this reason that the decree is considered discriminatory, because it states benefits will be conceded only to those who implement the law.
Sources close to AsiaNews confirm that the government having realised it made a wrong move is trying to reach a compromise with the churches and it has invited Christian leaders to a public meeting scheduled for next week. The EO requires that each school sustained economically by the government sets up a School Management Committee SMC with legal status separate from educational institutions (Sponsoring bodies SB). According to the government, this will allow for greater transparency and more democracy.
Several SBs, especially Christian ones Catholic, Anglican and Methodist say that already-existing directives provide enough transparency and democracy in school administration. At present, SMCs already exist but they answer to the SBs, and not to the government. Catholic bishop, Mgr Joseph Zen, condemned the law on several occasions, saying that because of it, "we will no longer have a guarantee that we can function in schools according to our vision and mission all schools [will pass] under the direct supervision of the government which paves the way for centralized power in its hands".