People Received the Newly Appointed Officials with Reservations (Abridged version of the full article)Back

On August 4, 2003, when CE Tung Chee-hwa announced the new appointments of three principal officials, the HKU Public Opinion Programme happened to be conducting a regular tracking poll on the popularity of principal officials. A number of questions were therefore instantly added into the poll, in order to test people's receptiveness of the newly appointed officials. Results revealed that, 42% of the respondents considered Henry Tang Ying-yen was the right person for the job of Financial Secretary, whilst 17% held the opposite view. As for Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong, 40% thought he was the right choice for the post of Secretary for Security, 13% said he was not. Thus, the general public could be regarded as approving the appointments of Tang and Lee with reservations. However, only 19% of the respondents believed that John Tsang Chun-wah, who took over the job as the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, was the right choice for the post, while 73% failed to give an appraisal.

The pollster Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, believed that Tang, attaining a positive appraisal level of 42%, has somewhat made some progress when compared to one year ago, when 38% of the respondents thought that he was the right person for the post of the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology. If a change of title from "Director" to "Secretary" is regarded as a career promotion, Tang's escalation in his official rank fails to win popular support. Yet, from another perspective, people still welcome Tang's appointment. Tang's popularity rating registered on August 1 was 53.0 marks among the sub-sample, which then surged to 58.4 marks after he accepted the post of Financial Secretary, indicating an increment of over 5 marks, which is not bad.

The positive appraisal level attained by Ambrose Lee, the new Secretary for Security, was more or less the same with that of Tang, which was just mediocre. However, Lee's popularity trailed way behind that of Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee one year ago. At that time, 75% of the people thought that Ip was the right person for the post of Secretary of Security. Chung pointed out that, had Ip not put up an over-ambitious attitude, refrained a bit from her high-profile and high-handed approach, and be more attentive to public opinion, her popularity would surely be further lifted. Now that Lee has stepped into Ip's shoes, whether he can manage to push up the popularity of the whole team is yet to be seen.

Chung summarized the development of the accountability system as follows: the leading team was full of ambitions one year ago, but any changes in the administration structure now can only be pursued prudently and cautiously. Owing to the hasty introduction of the accountability system by the obviously unprepared and immature administration, together with the unclear mechanism of such a system, a series of blunders has erupted one after another, resulting in a sheer failure of the whole leadership. Now that new blood is injected and new plans are set out, whether crisis could be turned into opportunity depends on the following crucial factors:

（1） Whether the leading team has learnt the lesson, and would establish a relatively more developed accountability system as soon as possible.

（2） Whether the SAR Government can revamp its policy directions, so as to respond to people's political, economical, and livelihood demands.

（3） Whether the leading team can recover themselves and store up enough energy to face the next crisis.

A year ago, CE Tung Chee-hwa's support rating was standing at the 50-mark level. After his announcement of the team of principal officials, his rating has increased from 50.7 marks to 52.8 marks. This year, the same move has earned him 4.1 marks, as his popularity rating rose from 40.3 to 44.4 marks, which was much higher than the 2.1-mark increment recorded last year. Yet, his overall rating is still below the 45-mark credibility crisis level. Chung analyzed that, the development of Tung's popularity is no doubt a clear reflection of the blind alley currently trapping the whole SAR leadership core.

One of the difficulties is that since the whole administration is in a critical condition, every single move has to be about making up for the past mistakes, while any reckless or unthinking decisions should be avoided. Another difficulty is the government's very limited resource of popularity, which was squandered over the past year, making it even harder now for the leading team to start again compared to one year ago, when the accountability system was first introduced. Facing such a deadlock, the only thing Tung and his leadership core could do is to take this painful lesson to their heart, revamp their policy directions, respond swiftly to the public's political demands, remain composed when facing economic challenges and hold on patiently for striking a rebound. Moreover, the government should also rebuild Hong Kong people's confidence on the cultural front, and always be prepared to face new crisis.

To put it bluntly, Chung believed that the CE should repent himself and make mistake no more.

Note: The Chinese version of this article is published concurrently by the POP Site and "Hong Kong Economic Journal". Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. Dr Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.

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