HKU POP SITE releases the latest ratings of Principal Officials under the accountability system and other members of the Executive Council, as well as the latest readings of 4 subjective freedom indicators Back

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 ratings of Principal Officials under the accountability system and other members of the Executive Council, as well as the readings of the 4 subjective freedom indicators on Hong Kong's freedom of "speech", "press", "publication", and "procession and demonstration". Recent figures on the popularity of Principal Officials and other members of the Executive Council 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.
** Ratings with less than 50% recognition rates are taken as not representative.

Findings obtained before the CE gave his Policy Address showed that, the ratings of CS Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, FS Henry Tang Ying-yen and SJ Elsie Leung Oi-sie were 64.2, 57.0 and 46.4 marks in respective orders. As for the Directors of Bureaux, because it is POP's long established practice not to treat ratings of persons with less than 50% benchmark recognition rate as representative, the rating of Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology John Tsang Chun-wah still cannot be meaningfully discussed in this survey, and has been listed separately in our summary tables. Results revealed that the most popular official remained to be Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung, who scored 60.2 marks. Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong and Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip Shu-kwan ranked 2nd and 3rd, with popularity ratings of 57.9 and 55.4 marks respectively. Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen Ming-yeung and Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong Wing-ping ranked from 4th to 6th, attaining 49.6, 48.5 and 47.8 marks correspondingly. Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho Chi-ping and Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong followed behind, scoring 46.8 and 45.4 marks respectively. The 9th and 10th places fell to Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang and Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung, with popularity ratings of 44.7 and 43.1 marks respectively.

Regarding people's ratings of the non-official members of the Executive Council, Selina Chow scored 56.5 marks, and leading with quite a margin from the rest. The ratings of Cheng Yiu-tong, Leung Chun-ying and Jasper Tsang were 44.5, 43.4 and 42.2 marks correspondingly, while that of Liao Cheung-sing was not taken as representative because of his less-than-50% recognition rate. As for the sit-in members, the Director of CE's Office Lam Woon-kwong and the Head of Central Policy Unit Lau Siu-kai scored 51.3 and 48.7 marks respectively.

With respect to the 4 subjective freedom indicators on Hong Kong's freedom of "speech", "press", "publication" and "procession and demonstration", 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.

Results showed that, on a scale of 0-10, the freedom of "procession and demonstration" scored the highest rating with 7.63 marks. "Publication" and "press" freedoms attained ratings of 7.57 and 7.51 marks respectively, while "speech" freedom scored 7.37 marks.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, made the following analysis: "After the New Year Rally, but before CE delivered his policy address, the popularity ratings of almost all Principal Officials, as well as the readings of all freedom indicators, have gone up. This is consistent with the trend of other social indicators. People's appraisal of their freedom to demonstrate has again topped the list, like after the July 1 Rally, and reached a record high. On the other hand, because of people's increased demand for constitutional review, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam has fallen to the bottom of the list of Principal Officials, in spite of his rather stable popularity ratings. Nevertheless, his rating was still higher than that of C.H. Tung registered in the same survey."

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 January 20, 2003, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest findings on a number of subjective social indicators 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.