HKIEd chief under fire in inquiry
Government counsel says Paul Morris backed merger proposal of tertiary faculties so that he could be university's leader
A lawyer accused the president of the Hong Kong Institute of Education yesterday of proposing a merger of all tertiary education faculties to form a teaching education university under his leadership.
Johnny Mok Shiu-luen SC, for Secretary of Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, also said a note from a meeting between Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and institute council chairman Thomas Leung Kwok-fai showed that Mr Tsang believed obstacles to the merger proposals could be overcome with mutual understanding.
In the inquiry into alleged government interference in the internal affairs of the HKIEd, Mr Mok argued there was no basis for suggesting that the chief executive or the government were taking a different position from Professor Li.
He also alleged that institute president Paul Morris was - contrary to his testimony - keen on the merger of the HKIEd and Chinese University as Professor Li proposed.
Professor Morris had used it as a 'bargaining chip' to advance the interests of the institute, the counsel argued during cross-examining. 'In fact, you are the one [saying that] all other education faculties should be merged and subsumed under the HKIEd and you should be the one leading it,' said Mr Mok.
The institute's president disagreed.
Professor Morris was questioned about a note dated October 2002 from the institute's senior management, which encouraged staff to send their views to the South China Morning Post on Professor Li's merger proposal and 'a bold plan of merging all these education faculties'.
'That wasn't a plan,' Professor Morris replied, stressing that the note was to invite staff to express their views on a number of suggestions raised following the merger proposal.
Mr Mok also sought to cast doubt on the president's earlier testimony that he was shocked to find out only during the hearing that Dr Leung had asked Professor Li for an early indication of the merger plan in a private meeting held in late 2003.
The president had explained that the council had always been against a full merger.
The lawyer read out an e-mail Professor Morris sent to Dr Leung on September 19, 2003 to instruct him on the issues to raise in the meeting with Professor Li and former permanent secretary for education and manpower Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun.
'I agree with your view that strategically, we should take the initiative now, as to wait could result in us being in a very weak bargaining position,' wrote Professor Morris.
'We should, however, not give the initial impression that we have decided to merge and wish to negotiate the terms.
'I think we should take the line that we believe that if certain conditions were satisfied, a merger would be beneficial and help the IEd ... in the long term.'
Among the 'conditions' was the need to get the government's approval for an assessment of the HKIEd to gain self-accreditation status, generally considered as the necessary step towards achieving university status.
Another was to ask the Education and Manpower Bureau to stop damaging the institute's reputation by releasing the benchmark test results for teachers.
'What you wanted Dr Leung to portray [in the meeting] was that you were very keen on the merger?' asked Mr Mok.
'That's rubbish,' the president said.
'You were trying to suggest that a merger could be used as a bargaining chip ... to smooth the way for an institutional review and stop the EMB's tactics?' the counsel asked.
Professor Morris disagreed.
The hearing continues today.
