'Rape' claim on merger is credible: panel lawyer

The claim that Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung said the Hong Kong Institute of Education would be 'raped' if it refused to agree to a merger with Chinese University was 'wholly credible', an inquiry heard yesterday.

Making his closing submissions on the final day of the inquiry investigating allegations of government interference into the institute's internal affairs, Benjamin Yu SC, counsel for the commission, said Professor Li's comments were improper and an infringement of the institute's autonomy.

Mr Yu said there was no evidence to suggest that the commission should not accept former HKIEd council chairman Simon Ip Sik-on's testimony that Professor Li said the institute would be 'raped' if it did not agree to merge.

'Dr Ip's evidence that he used the word 'rape' ... as an unfortunate metaphor that if you don't do it, it will be forced upon you, is wholly credible,' he said.

Mr Yu rejected commission chairman Mr Justice Wally Yeung Chun-kuen's suggestion that it was a matter of interpretation whether the word 'rape' was used to imply that something was going to happen irrespective of whether the institute wanted it.

'A responsible government must know that there are proper procedures. If the government thinks 'because I think this is good in terms of the public good therefore I can ride roughshod over the sentient view', then the values we treasure as a pluralistic society will all be undermined,' Mr Yu said.

It was the institute's governing council that determined what was best for the institute, he said.