My Take | Folly for Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying to meddle in university affairs

There was never any love lost between Johannes Chan Man-mun and Leung Chun-ying.

The former law dean of the University of Hong Kong once called Leung the worst chief executive the city ever had and said he should consider resigning. He is also a member of the pan-democratic Hong Kong 2020 think tank, headed by former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang. So you can probably guess what Leung would think about having the legal scholar promoted to be the university's pro-vice-chancellor.

By tradition dating back to the colonial era, the chief executive is the university's chancellor. But by law and convention, he has no real power over its administration. As much as Leung might wish he had some influence, it would be foolish, as pro-Beijing newspapers Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao have done, to try publicly to undermine the professor.

With the leftists' sustained public attacks, the university's council and senate now probably have no choice but to recommend and confirm Chan's appointment to the new post. Allegations have surfaced in recent days that the government has been exerting pressure on university council members. Former Ming Pao chief editor Kevin Lau Chun-to, a former student of Chan's, wrote in his newspaper that "some extremely influential people in the government" had called council members to pressure them to reject Chan for the post. HKU's search committee has reportedly unanimously recommended Chan. Could Leung and his lieutenants really be so silly?

You would hope they had learned from the Robert Chung Ting-yiu scandal when the Tung Chee-hwa administration tried to stop his political surveys at HKU exposing its unpopularity. That caused the then Tung-friendly vice-chancellor, Cheng Yiu-chung, and his deputy, Wong Siu-lung to resign. Chung went on to gain a PhD, and became the city's premier political pollster. Far from being sent to Siberia, it seems being attacked by the government and leftists is a guaranteed path to promotion at the university.

Leung and his friends may take comfort that Chan is not Benny Tai Yiu-ting, his colleague at the law faculty. He hasn't called for permanent mass rallies to paralyse the city and force Beijing to yield.