Of the 4,454 votes cast, almost 98 per cent voted to oppose him
DANNY MOK AND ERNEST KAO
PUBLISHED : Monday, 30 November, 2015, 1:35pm
UPDATED : Monday, 30 November, 2015, 2:11pm
University of Hong Kong alumni gathered for the convocation’s second extraordinary meeting occasioned by the Johannes Chan appointment. Photo: Jonathan Wong
Thousands of University of Hong Kong alumni yesterday voted overwhelmingly against executive councillor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung becoming the university’s new council chairman.
The non-binding motion was one of five related to the rejection in September of liberal scholar Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun’s as pro-vice-chancellor.
Voting was at an extraordinary general meeting of the HKU Convocation, a statutory body made up of 162,000 graduates and staff. It was the second such meeting triggered by Chan’s rejection.
Of the 4,454 votes cast, 4,356 – almost 98 per cent – voted for the motion opposing Li, a former education minister, to replace Dr Leong Che-hung as chairman of the council, the institution’s top governing body.There were just 25 votes against the motion and 10 abstentions.
Education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen, who is also convenor of the HKU Alumni Concern Group, said the result spoke for itself.
“If we didn’t come out to express our opinions, maybe Li would have already been appointed,” Ip said. “Maybe the council would have made more regrettable decisions.”
Ip said power was still vested with Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, the school’s chancellor. Yet the lawmaker said he believed “any reasonable, rational chief executive wouldn’t still go ahead” with trying to elevate Li to the chairmanship.
Stephen Chan Chi-wan, with his voting ballot, was one of thousands of alumni to vote yesterday. Photo: Jonathan Wong
The motion stated that Li, who had been tipped to take up the post, was not a suitable candidate as he did not have the trust, confidence and respect of academic and non-academic staff, students and alumni.
The four other motions passed with more than 96 per cent support.
One motion denounced the council’s rejection on September 29 of the search committee’s choice of pro-vice-chancellor without providing the convocation or the public with a valid reason. Chan had been the search committee’s sole candidate for the job. That motion was supported by 4,308 votes.
There were slightly fewer votes, 4, 282, in favour of a no-confidence motion against then council chairman Leong and members who voted against the search committee’s recommendation.
Almost the same number, 4,281, voted for a motion claiming that releasing audio recordings of the closed-door council meeting where members rejected Chan was in the public interest and in the spirit of HKU’s ‘whistle-blowing policy’. The deliberations appeared to have been recorded secretly and excerpts were posted online and broadcast on radio and television.
Another motion calling for the council to explain its reasons for rejecting Chan within 14 days received 4,345 votes of support.
Additional reporting by Jeffie Lam
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1885177/hku-alumni-speak-ballot-arthur-li-top-aide-hong
