LAI YING-KIT YINGKIT.LAI@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Friday, 02 October, 2015, 12:28pm
UPDATED : Friday, 02 October, 2015, 12:33pm
Professor Lo Chung-mau arriving at HKU in August as an alumni group rallied to call on the university's governing body to appoint Dr. Johannes Chan. Photo: Felix Wong
A University of Hong Kong council member has slammed a student representative who sits on the institution’s governing body for disclosing discussion details of a controversial personnel decision.
In a statement issued late Thursday, Dr Lo Chung-mau also said some had been “exaggerating matters” by attacking him online. He said such actions would “further split HKU” and “split Hong Kong.”
Lo, a renowned liver surgeon, was quoted today by RTHK as saying he had received 2,000 emails since details of Tuesday's council meeting were exposed. He said some messages contained offensive language.
In his statement, Lo referred to a student member on the council breaching a confidentially agreement by “one-sidedly making statements on what was discussed by council members” during a recent meeting to discuss whether to appoint former university law school dean Johannes Chan Man-mun to a key managerial post.
Lo did not identify the student representative by name.
READ MORE: University of Hong Kong council leak prompts debate over transparency
“Integrity is the cornerstone of character,” Lo’s statement read. “Using dishonest means to achieve goals must not be tolerated.”
He added that he hoped the student could reflect on what he did.
After the closed-door discussions on Tuesday night, student representative Billy Fung Jing-en angrily abandoned confidentiality rules and revealed the reasons pro-government members had given for rejecting Professor Chan’s candidacy for the post.
According to Fung, one reason raised by Lo was that Chan failed to “show sympathy” to him when he collapsed in July when students stormed a meeting. Reasons from other members included Chan's not having a PhD, Fung said.
Fung was immediately criticised by several pro-establishment figures, including those mentioned in his revelations, with some calling him “a liar” and “lacking in integrity”.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1863459/university-hong-kong-council-member-accuses
