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Polly Hui

Not long after he became a vocal supporter of small-class teaching, Ip Kin-yuen knew his relationship with former permanent secretary for education and manpower Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun had turned sour.

'Whenever Fanny saw me on any occasion, her face darkened,' said Mr Ip, a former lecturer of education policy and administration at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

'It was not only Fanny. Everybody else in the Education and Manpower Bureau - from top to bottom - was avoiding me. I could feel the change in temperature once I stepped into the room.'

Mr Ip, who worked closely with Mrs Law during a year-long secondment to the EMB in 1999, was one of four institute academics whom Mrs Law was alleged to have pressured president Paul Morris to sack after they publicly criticised the government's education policies.

The commission of inquiry this week found the allegation against Mrs Law had been 'partially established' in relation to Mr Ip and his former colleague Cheng Yin-cheong.

It concluded that it was 'improper for someone of Mrs Law's position to attempt to silence critics by addressing them personally or through their superiors, irrespective of the motive'.

Mrs Law testified that she had a habit of phoning academics who wrote critical articles to try to convince them to present a more positive view of the education system.

Chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Higher Education Staff Associations Shum Kar-ping said in light of the allegations, academics might be reluctant to criticise the government publicly due to fear of losing their jobs.

'People will be very careful about what they say,' he said.

Professor Shum said it was crucial that the government did not pressure heads of institutions to sack staff who criticised government policies.

'I think it's very important because nobody can come to work comfortably. You'll always have some doubt,' he said.

Professor Shum said Hong Kong needed an independent appeal mechanism where academics could take their case if they believed they had been wrongly sacked.

Civic Party legislator Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung, a lecturer at Polytechnic University's Department of Applied Social Science, agreed that it was possible the allegations would make academics more wary of criticising the government, but he said that feeling already existed in many academic circles.

He said if a threat to fire an academic turned out to be genuine, 'it would make a lot of academics think twice before they choose to be critical of the government'.

Mr Cheung said he had the impression that he was perceived as a 'liability' to his department at PolyU because he criticised the government.

He said the contract nature of his employment could put pressure on him not to criticise the government.

'I think this is in a way a pressure on me to keep my mouth shut if I wanted to stay secure in my current job,' he said.

Although Mr Ip, a regular newspaper columnist, said he was not afraid when Mrs Law phoned him in late 2003 regarding a critical article he had written about education policies and reform, he conceded that academics who had a bigger family to feed or who were less secure in their jobs could have succumbed to her pressure. He said he was shocked when he learned that Mrs Law wanted him sacked.

'Our relationship, no matter how bad it had turned, did not justify her call for dismissal. It was totally out of my expectation,' he said, adding that it was disappointing to realise that senior government officials could not tolerate different opinions.

Mr Ip, now principal of HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, said he appreciated Mrs Law's efforts and passion for the education sector.

He believed her resignation was a shame and said it must have been a very difficult decision for her.

'Fanny does not easily give up. Her decision must have been made after very thorough consideration and planning,' he said.

Anita Poon Yuk-kang, an associate professor at Baptist University's education studies department, said she had been contacted twice by EMB officials after she published articles critical of the government.

Dr Poon said it was 'extremely inappropriate' for the EMB to contact academics who criticised the government.

'I think it's absolutely wrong for the government or for the EMB officials to do such things,' Dr Poon said.

'I think they should respect our autonomy and academic freedom.'



The temperature changed when I entered room: Ip