'Controversial' Li tipped as possible choice for top job

Executive councillor Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung has been tipped by a pro-establishment lawmaker as a possible candidate for the chief executive poll in 2017, but the idea was quickly dismissed by two pan-democrats and a political scientist.

Speaking at a luncheon on Tuesday, the chairman of the Legislative Council's education panel, Lam Tai-fai, was asked to name the politicians who could run for the top job two years from now. Lam said: "I think Arthur Li is a possible candidate. I think many people have the same idea, too."

Lam said Li's experience as Chinese University's vice chancellor from 1996 to 2002, and as the secretary for education and manpower until 2007, would make him a good candidate.

Li is also a local delegate to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the nation's top advisory body, and an emeritus professor of surgery at Chinese University.

However, while education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen declined to say whether Li was a suitable candidate, he described the 69-year-old as a "controversial figure who might not be good at forging consensus".

In 2007, an inquiry instigated by then chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen heard how Li, as education secretary, allegedly pressured the Institute of Education to merge with Chinese University. But the inquiry commission found there was insufficient evidence to prove Li had interfered with HKIEd's autonomy.