The chairman of Polytechnic University’s governing council, Lam Tai-fai, said today that the government should shoulder all repair costs following the police siege of the institution's Hung Hom campus, and that PolyU can't be made to take the blame for the administration's "misgovernance,'' RTHK reports.

In a radio interview, Lam said the campus – which was vandalized by protesters – has been "ruined" and it will take the university several more days to assess how much it will cost to fix all the damage.

He said the government should shoulder all of the repair costs as the fierce clashes between protesters and the police last month were not caused by the university’s wrongdoing, and the institution was simply caught in the middle of a political firestorm.

Lam, who is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, also said the Chief Executive’s plan to establish a review committee to look into the causes of the anti-government protests won't be sufficient to calm social tension.

He likened the plan for a review committee to Carrie Lam’s previous remark that the extradition bill "is dead," saying the CE is simply not doing enough to address people's demands.

Lam, who's also a former vice-chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Council, said a fair and impartial mechanism such as an independent committee must be set up to investigate not just the protests, but also allegations of police brutality.

He said society has such a low level of trust in the IPCC and any investigation needs to be carried out by a separate body to restore public confidence.