Reactions from students, staff and a well-known alum span political spectrum
TONY CHEUNG AND NAOMI NG
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 31 December, 2015, 3:42pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 31 December, 2015, 4:27pm
Li’s appointment as chairman of the university’s governing council has drawn contrasting opinions. Photo: Sam Tsang
As former education minister Arthur Li Kwok-cheung prepares to take the helm as chairman of the University of Hong Kong’s governing council, students and staff members reacted with concern and calls for greater transparency after the decision triggered condemnation.
ADVERTISING
Third-year surveying student Alvin Chim Hei-shun of the chief executive’s appointment: “It just goes to show that Leung Chun-ying has made the decision on his own and taken over the university.”
“I’m worried about how he’ll handle the situation if we have another umbrella movement and that he’ll suppress the students,” Chim added.
The news that Li would begin his three-year term as council chairman from January 1 sparked criticism from the student union and other council members.
First-year law student Ronald Chiu said the governing body had a responsibility to clarify the circumstances surrounding the appointment.
“There was no transparency with what set of criteria they used for Li’s appointment, and they need to make that clear to the public,” said Chiu.
A science faculty staff member who declined to be identified said she would not support Li if she had a choice in choosing HKU’s council chairman.
“Looking at his past track record, he hasn’t been able to do a good job with playing a fair and unbiased role,” said the woman surnamed Wong. “A chairman shouldn’t put forward their own personal opinion to lead others.”
READ MORE: Five things to know about Arthur Li’s appointment as HKU council chairman
Although the university’s student union made clear that it had no plans to organise a boycott at the moment, Chim said he would consider boycotting classes if the union had arranged one to express opposition to Li’s appointment.
Executive Councillor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee told Commercial Radio that Li was a person who spoke frankly, and hoped that he could speak “more skillfully” in the future.
Ip said that the university was deeply divided over the council’s rejection of legal scholar Johannes Chan Man-mun’s candidacy to be a pro-vice-chancellor.
Ip said she hoped that Li could “mend the divide, promote harmony with the university, be active in communicating with staff and students and consider the university’s development as his first priority.”
A graduate of the university’s English department in the early 1970s, Ip resigned as Secretary for Security a year after Li was appointed education minister in 2002. She also described Li as a good friend whom she respected.
On September 29, soon after the council voted down Chan’s pro-vice-chancellor candidacy, HKU students’ union president Billy Fung Jing-en abandoned confidentiality rules and divulged what pro-government council members said during a council meeting in opposition to Chan’s appointment.
Speaking on RTHK this morning, Fung did not rule out exposing Li’s remarks behind closed doors in the future.
“I will stick to my style to ensure everyone’s right to know,” said Fung, who continued to sit on the council. “If there are irrational discussions based on inaccurate facts or personal insults behind closed doors … I don’t want to do it again, but I would not rule it out.”
Fung said that students would protest against Li’s appointment, but a class boycott was “not the best option” at present because it would not exert pressure on Li and councillors.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1896797/arthur-li-fallout-hku-students-consider-protest
