LAI YING-KIT AND JOYCE NG
PUBLISHED : Friday, 09 October, 2015, 11:50am
UPDATED : Friday, 09 October, 2015, 1:16pm
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying met Peter Mathieson in the weeks leading up to the controversial rejection of a liberal academic's promotion to a senior manager's job. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying today faced calls to reveal details of what he discussed with the head of the University of Hong Kong in a meeting held in the weeks before the controversial rejection of a liberal academic’s promotion to a senior manager’s role.
The South China Morning Post revealed today thatLeung met HKU vice-chancellor Professor Peter Mathieson at least once in the weeks before the university council voted against appointing former law faculty dean Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun as a pro-vice-chancellor.
Ip Kin-yuen, the education sector lawmaker and convener of an HKU alumni concern group, urged Leung to come clean on what was discussed during the meeting.
He was concerned Leung tried to exert pressure on Mathieson in the decision on Chan’s appointment or other HKU affairs. He said Leung was the university’s chancellor but it was a nominal head position.
He said the chancellor should avoid being involved in HKU’s daily administrative matters.
“The timing [of the meeting] is very sensitive. People would suspect that [Leung] might seek to influence matters relating to Professor Chan,” Ip said during a Commercial Radio talk show this morning.
Ip Kin-yuen convenes an HKU alumni concern group. Photo: Felix Wong
Ip also renewed calls for HKU council chairman Leong Che-hung to explain why the council rejected Chan’s appointment. He said Leong was representative of the council and should give an account.
He also said there were signs that Mathieson had become the new target for groups which had been attacking Chan. He said a group protested at HKU yesterday, shouting slogans to demand Mathieson’s resignation.
“And leftist newspapers have lately published articles from time to time targeting Mathieson,” Ip said. “I think the signs are quite clear.”
Meanwhile, the HKU students’ union council decided in an emergency meeting last night to hold a referendum on campus on the chairmanship of the university’s governing council from October 26 to 30.
There will be two motions. The first is that "the HKU council chairman to be appointed must be someone acceptable to teachers, staff and students”; the second states “Arthur Li Kwok-cheung is not fit for any position in the HKU governance structure”.
The students decided to hold the vote because the government is expected to appoint a new chairman when Leong’s term expires early next month.
HKU council chairman Leong Che-hung's term ends in November. Photo: Felix Wong
The students fear that Li, an Executive Councillor and former education minister known as the “tsar” for his high-handed management style, is likely to be chosen by the government. Li has also been highly critical of HKU student protesters who stormed a council meeting in July, describing them as "red guards of the Cultural Revolution”.
He also said union president Billy Fung Jing-en was a ”liar” after Fung reported Li’s comments in the last council meeting in rejecting Chan’s candidacy for a key managerial post. Li purportedly said Chan was not fit for the job because he did not have a PhD.
In September, the HKU Convocation, a statutory body representing all alumni, passed a non-binding motion demanding future council chairman candidates must be acceptable to staff and students. About 80 per cent of the 9,000 who cast votes supported the motion.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1865490/what-did-they-talk-about-lawmaker-demands-answers
