HKU POP SITE releases the latest results of a number of subjective social and legal indicatorsBack

The Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the latest results of a number of subjective social and legal indicators. Amongst them, the degree of "fairness", "civilization", "corruption-free practices", "equality", "efficiency", "social welfare sufficiency" and "public order" are released on-line for the first time. Recent figures are summarized as follows:

* "95% confidence level" means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified.

With respect to the social indicators, on a scale of 0-10, Hong Kong's degree of "freedom" scored the highest rating with 7.10 marks, followed by "corruption-free practices", "civilization" and "public order", attaining 6.90, 6.87 and 6.75 marks correspondingly. "Social welfare sufficiency", "efficiency", "stability" and "equality" formed the next tier, scoring 6.30, 6.28, 6.27 and 6.25 marks correspondingly. Meanwhile, the ratings of "democracy", "fairness" and "prosperity" were 5.90, 5.82 and 5.78 marks in respective orders. Regarding the rule of law, people's appraisal of the impartiality of the courts scored 6.70 marks, that of the compliance with the rule of law scored 6.50 marks, while the latest rating of the fairness of the judicial system was 6.33 marks. Meanwhile, the latest popularity rating of Chief Justice Andrew Li Kowk-nang, a representative figure of the judicial system, was 56.6 marks, on a scale of 0-100.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, made the following analysis: "Since the method and dates of survey for all 14 subjective indicators are the same, all of them could be compared on equal footing. Figures show that people are most satisfied with Hong Kong's degree of "freedom", "corruption-free practices" and "civilization". They are least satisfied with the degree of "prosperity", "fairness" and "democracy". Other than "public order", all indicators have rebounded in October. "Freedom", "public order", "equality", "democracy", and various rule of law indicators, however, have not yet gone back to the level of mid-April, before the July 1 Demonstration. One point to note is that the controversies surrounding double payment received by Equal Opportunities Commission Chairman Michael Wong Kin-chow, who is a retired Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of the High Court, have just erupted shortly after our fieldwork started. The sacking of Patrick Yu Chung-yin as Director of Operations of the Equal Opportunities Commission, the alleged acceptance of undeclared gifts by Wong, have not yet surfaced. The exact effect of these controversies on people's confidence in the judiciary is yet to be studied, but one thing for sure is that both the government and the judiciary must not overlook the consequence of this incident."

POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday at 2 pm via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the forthcoming week. We will review and adjust this operation regularly. According to this schedule, the date and time of our next release will be November 11, 2003, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest figures on the popularity of CE Tung Chee-hwa and Principal Officials under the accountability system will be released. Shall anyone have any question regarding the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site, members of the POP Team will be happy to answer them, but we will not further comment on the findings. Shall any person or journalist have any other questions, please email them to us at <[email protected]>. The Director of Public Opinion Programme would answer them as soon as possible. We will keep such an arrangement under constant review, suggestions most welcome. 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.