Fourth leak from University of Hong Kong council meetings shows president supported liberal scholar's bid for post

Recording of council meeting reveals Peter Mathieson stood by liberal scholar's application

Reading Time:2 minutes

HKU president Peter Mathieson (left) was evidently standing by Chan. He was also heard saying Lo Chung-mau (right), who had opposed Chan's appointment as a pro-vice-chancellor, was taking things "very personally". Photos: Dickson Lee

Published: 11:30pm, 25 Nov 2015Updated: 10:39am, 26 Nov 2015

The president of the University of Hong Kong showed support for Johannes Chan Man-mun shortly before the institution's governing body blocked him from taking up a key managerial post, a new recording of a key closed-door meeting in September leaked on Wednesday night revealed.

The latest leak posted on a site in Taiwan was described as a 'dream' - the full transcription was uploaded as well as audio. Image: supplied

The voice recording - uploaded to Taiwanese online forum PTT - had HKU president Peter Mathieson standing by Chan. He was also heard saying Lo Chung-mau, who had opposed Chan's appointment as a pro-vice-chancellor, was taking things "very personally".

Lo, who was present at the meeting, was then heard complaining that Chan showed no sympathy after Lo was pushed to the floor during a previous council meeting chaotically stormed by students and other protesters.

Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun was blocked as pro-vice-chancellor. Photo: Sam Tsang

"I'm not saying I need his sympathy," the surgeon was recorded as telling the council. "But as staff, I really feel if you are PVC [pro-vice-chancellor for] staffing and if a staff member had an injury during an event like this, should you just keep on saying it's the council's fault?"

But Mathieson rebutted him: "There's no requirement in the job description for the candidate to express sympathy otherwise on anybody who is injured. I think you are putting post-event facts into this particular context."