The failure of the opposition's bid to use the July 1 protest as a dress rehearsal for the "Occupy Central" campaign has led to their thinking that pushing ahead with the campaign alone is not enough, and that more tricks are needed to pile pressure on the central and Hong Kong SAR governments - hence, the rehashing of anti-national education propaganda by Apple Daily, Scholarism and the Parent Concern Group (PCG).

The latest round of verbal attacks on the government by these forces takes aim at a simplified introduction to the Basic Law for primary school pupils. They call the booklet a means to conduct "covert brainwashing". Evidence that they have presented to back up the charges includes an observation that many people were immersed in pride at the sight of the national flag being raised during the handover ceremony 16 years ago; and the fact that top officials of the HKSAR government must love Hong Kong as well as the motherland.

PCG convener Chan Sik-chi has even gone further by swearing in an article published in a local newspaper that her organization is all prepared to block national education from being enforced in Hong Kong. She said the PCG is now a registered company incorporated in Hong Kong and has enough money to hire staff to do all the daily chores, while more than a dozen core members are toiling to launch a new offensive against "primary education materials with national education content of a dubious nature". In other words, they are set to impose political censorship over anything they label as national education material for "brainwashing".

The new anti-national education campaign is quite similar to the version staged last year, except that the hired guns now also attack ideas like "Taiwan is part of the nation's sacred territories" and "realizing national reunification is a sacred mission for all of us." It's not all that surprising given the fact that Apple Daily's owner Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is a staunch ally of "Taiwan independence" forces worldwide.

Those whipping up anti-national education sentiment have also taken issue with sentences in the teaching aid stating that "Hong Kong thrives in the arms of the motherland," which is a simple fact no one can deny. The reality is that schools are now given a free hand in what they want to teach students and what teaching materials to use in the so-called general study classes. That means opposition groups, such as the PCG and Scholarism, are openly interfering in the local school curricular in the name of "anti-brain washing".

As in last year's opposition campaign, which was launched to drum up their candidates' morale and political appeal in the Legislative Council (LegCo) elections, the current anti-national education farce is part of their efforts to derail implementation of the Chief Executive and LegCo elections by universal suffrage according to the Basic Law and relevant decisions of the National People's Congress Standing Committee. Both campaigns serve the same political objective of undermining the lawful administration of the HKSAR government and ultimately seizing power in Hong Kong.

The timing of the current anti-national education campaign is also the same as last year's, because the summer recess is a perfect opportunity for youth-centric groups, such as Scholarism and the PCG, to brainwash innocent young students. Another reason for the opposition reviving such a farce is that last year's edition proved such topics are less likely to offend many people as some other political crusades do. By using a bunch of youngsters (Scholarism) and parents (PCG) as frontrunners, the campaign stands a better chance of hoodwinking the public into supporting the opposition camp. That's why behind-the-scenes bankrollers have once again opened up their wallets to inject more funds into the campaign.

The author is a current affairs commentator.

(HK Edition 07/13/2013 page6)