The blame game: students and HKU council chief Arthur Li cancel meeting as rift widens
Scheduled talks called off with each side blaming the other, while another council member recalls her ordeal during besieged meeting a week ago
A proposed meeting between University of Hong Kong students and council chairman Arthur Li Kwok-cheung to discuss university reform remains up in the air as the rift between the two sides has widened.
Wednesday’s scheduled meeting was cancelled, with students and Li blaming each other, and a council member complained of how she suffered when protesting students besieged a council meeting last week.
The two sides were in talks to set up a meeting after the council, under pressure from student protests, agreed in last Tuesday’s meeting to address their demand for a review panel to discuss reforming HKU’s governance structure.
READ MORE: Hong Kong University students behaved ‘like they were on drugs’ says Arthur Li
While Li said he doubted students sincerity, a class boycott committee, which held the student protest last week, said in a statement late on Tuesday night that they had been “wronged”.
“The committee has borne in mind the interests of the university and has tolerated the unreasonable acts of the council many times,” the statement read.
Students claim reform is necessary to prevent further political interference into the council, which entered a political storm last year in the wake of Occupy Central. It rejected pro-democracy professor Johannes Chan Man-mun’s candidacy for a university managerial post despite a search committee recommending him for the post.
Students want a review to strip Hong Kong’s chief executive of his default position as HKU chancellor, and of his power to appoint council members.