Only Hong Kong University can decide whether Benny Tai should keep his job, education chief Kevin Yeung says
Secretary for Education says it’s not for him to decide whether the controversial scholar is suitable to teach
It is for the University of Hong Kong to decide whether controversial academic Benny Tai Yiu-ting – who has been attacked by the authorities for recent remarks on independence for the city – is still suitable to teach, the education secretary said on Sunday.
“It is not up to me to decide whether he is suitable [to teach]. I believe the university would make a decision after thorough consideration,” Yeung said.
I heard independence remarks before criticising, Hong Kong chief says
Asked at what point independence discussions would exceed the scope of academic freedom, Yeung said: “I believe everyone will study all the facts to determine whether it is an academic discussion, advocacy or promotion.”
Video footage of the seminar showed Tai suggesting that different ethnic groups in China could exercise their right to self-determination and decide how they could link up with each other – through going independent, becoming part of a federal or confederation system – when the country became democratic.
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A senior manager of HKU’s law faculty earlier told the Post that Tai, as a tenured associate professor, would not be affected by the controversy.
Pressure on the city to enact its own national security law – as required by Basic Law Article 23 – to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition and subversion against Beijing was also mounting.
Tam Yiu-chung, the city’s sole deputy to the nation’s top legislative body, said on Saturday that the “suitable atmosphere” for the legislation was slowly forming as people were disturbed about Tai’s “daydreaming” about independence.
Tam said he did not think what Tai said was “academic research”, adding Beijing’s response was understandable given the scholar was not only a civilian but someone who had advocated the Occupy movement in 2014.
Tai, meanwhile, wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday that he not only feared free speech and academic freedom in Hong Kong would be curbed, but also one’s freedom of thought.
He called on Hongkongers to stay firm in the face of further suppression from Beijing by turning the city’s democratic movement to one which was against dictatorship.
“We need to remain hopeful as history has told us that no leader will never die, no regime will never fall and no system will never change,” Tai wrote.
“We need to ensure that we have people running for all the some 400 popularly elected seats in the 2019 district council elections.”