The University of Hong Kong’s governing council on Tuesday fired Benny Tai Yiu-ting, an associate professor of law with the university’s Law Faculty, over his criminal convictions for his role in the illegal movement “Occupy Central” in 2014. That the long-overdue decision was enthusiastically hailed by Hong Kong society, except his supporters and followers, surprised few.

What knocked many was the impudence Tai demonstrated in trying to associate his villainy with academic freedom.

An additional benefit of Tai’s dismissal, aside from maintaining the good name of academic freedom, is that it has virtually fired a warning shot to all other political schemers and demagogues who have been conducting various illegal or malicious maneuvers inside campuses under the disguise of “academic freedom”

Since 2014 or much earlier, Tai has devoted himself to one and only one enterprise — facilitating a regime change in Hong Kong that would make his ultimate political aspiration a reality. 

From the “Occupy Central” campaign in 2014 aimed at forcing the central government to accept their version of an election mechanism for the selection of the chief executive, to “Operation ThunderGo” targeting the 2016 Legislative Council election, “Project Storm” initiated for the 2019 District Council election and now the “35-plus” plan initiated for the upcoming Legislative Council election in September, Tai has only one thing in mind — helping the opposition camp to grab the governing power of the special administrative region by manipulating the elections. 

To this end, he had no qualms about ruining the lives of hundreds of otherwise promising young people by turning them into foot soldiers carrying out his schemes during the “Occupy Central” movement and the yearlong violent campaign — tellingly titled “Black Revolution” — that started in June last year. 

There is nothing academic in Tai’s endeavors, which are pure politics, the only fruition of which was the destruction of the well-being and future of hundreds if not thousands of young people. He has successfully hoodwinked thousands of idealistic yet gullible youngsters into breaking the law with sophistry like “achieving justice by breaking the law”.

Responding to his dismissal by HKU, Tai said the university governing council’s decision “marked the end of academic freedom in Hong Kong”.

In associating his wicked endeavors with academic freedom, Tai has not only blasphemed the good name of academic freedom but also insulted the intelligence of any thinking person.

An additional benefit of Tai’s dismissal, aside from maintaining the good name of academic freedom, is that it has virtually fired a warning shot to all other political schemers and demagogues who have been conducting various illegal or malicious maneuvers inside campuses under the disguise of “academic freedom”.