My Take | University of Hong Kong is the big loser in political battlefield
The saga over the appointment of HKU’s chairman has developed into a war zone that now threatens academic standards
Whatever you think about Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, you can’t say he’s not qualified.
Quite literally in the dead of winter, the government announced his appointment as chairman of the University of Hong Kong council. Too bad his enemies on campus didn’t seem to have taken a Christmas holiday.
The very next day, the usual suspects from the students’ union and an academic staff concern group came out in full force to denounce the new chairman.
His appointment was hardly surprising, though. It was known for a long time Li was Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s first choice for the job. Li has an impressive résumé: one of the city’s top surgeons, founding chairman of the Chinese University’s surgery department, dean of its medical school, vice-chancellor of the Chinese University; then later education chief under the first post-handover administration of Tung Chee-hwa.
Alas, he is also one of the city’s most politically divisive public figures, stemming mostly from highly controversial policies he advocated during his tenure as education chief.
There was speculation that Leung might decide to be more conciliatory after vocal opposition from many HKU students and academic staff. The fact that the post was left vacant for more than a month might have indicated Leung was having second thoughts about appointing Li. As it turned out, he was merely dragging out the process just like he did with the Occupy protests, hoping the opposition from student hotheads might die down after the furore over the failed appointment of pro-democracy scholar Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun as pro-vice-chancellor at the university.