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Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Occupy Central founder Benny Tai banned from supervising researchers for three years following HKU donation scandal

Occupy Central founder and colleagues face repercussions - but not the loss of their jobs - for accepting and using donations outside the rules

Occupy Central founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting is facing a three-year ban on assuming managerial posts, receiving donations and supervising researchers at the University of Hong Kong, where he works, as penalties for handling Occupy-related donations without following the rules.

The punishment, proposed by the HKU senior management, is seen by his allies as retaliation against the academic-turned-political activist. But others see it as a way for him to avoid the risk of dismissal, which some Beijing loyalists had wanted.

The HKU governing council adopted the penalties for Tai and two other scholars in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday night.

Tai, an associate law professor, said yesterday: "I need to see the actual decisions before giving any response, as it needs to be very accurate."

Sources said HKU Public Opinion Programme director Dr Robert Chung Ting-yiu was banned from receiving donations for a shorter duration. He conducted a citywide referendum for Occupy at the request of an anonymous donor.

School of Humanities professor Daniel Chua, who agreed to send a redundant research assistant from his school to work for the referendum project, faces the same three penalties as Tai but for shorter spans.

READ MORE: HKU sets September deadline for decision on appointment of controversial academic

READ MORE: The topsy-turvy world of university politics in Hong Kong

All three scholars have written rebuttals denying the allegations against them.

While Tai was said to have failed "expected standards" that he should reveal an anonymous donor's identity, he said in his response the requirement was never known.

Chung also said the guidelines were never been known to him and that unconditional anonymous donation was "philanthropy" more noble than sponsorship with strings.

Chung said he had been informed of the decisions but could not comment due to the university's confidentiality requirement. Chua said he had not received notice.

Chan Kin-man, who co-founded the civil disobedience movement with Tai in 2013, said the punishment was retaliation against Occupy: "If it was not [for] Occupy, I wouldn't believe the council would have been so anxious to drill into the technicalities and find fault with Tai."

The donations were revealed when Tai's email account and those of the others were hacked and leaked last year. An internal HKU inquiry found the scholars accepted and used HK$1.45 million in donations over two years.

Tai's fellow law professor Michael Davis said he would not see the ban on Tai supervising researchers as an extreme punishment because legal research, unlike social science, was mostly done independently.

Even so, the penalties would still amount to long-term effects on Tai, said Professor Ng Shun-wing, head of the Institute of Education's department of education policy and leadership, because they might affect his status and work with other institutions.

Meanwhile, HKU vice-chancellor Professor Peter Mathieson said at the inauguration ceremony he was pleased that the council had accepted his team's recommendations on how to deal with those involved with the questionable donations. He said he would not describe the response as punishment.

Student union president Billy Fung Jing-en said the union would give detailed suggestions and organise a referendum on how the HKU governing council should be reformed to lessen the government's influence on it.

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: HKU looks to penalise Benny Tai
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