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Commentary
Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Compared to three months ago, the findings of almost all three survey items have fluctuated within sampling errors. People's satisfaction with Legco members in general is still mediocre, while their satisfaction with the two disciplinary forces covered in this survey remains very positive, with very low dissatisfaction rates. However, although people's satisfaction with the Hong Kong Police Force has remained high, it has significantly dropped from its record high registered 6 months before. People's satisfaction with the PLA's Hong Kong Garrison, on the other hand, has fluctuated around 60% in the past two years, and no significant change is depicted over the last two surveys. Regarding the overall performance of Legco members, we need to stress that the figures reveal the performance of Legco members on the whole, they include those returned by geographical as well as functional constituencies. They are not direct measurements of individual Legco members' performance."
Since the figures in this release come from the last tracking survey conducted by HKUPOP in 2006, Robert Chung added, "For most of the regular findings released by POP through our POP Site, we have included half-yearly averages which are also good for year-end reviews. Our figures on people's satisfaction with the Hong Kong Police Force and the PLA's Hong Kong Garrison are no exceptions. Because the handover of Hong Kong occurred on July 1, it may be more accurate to analyze macro changes of Hong Kong society using half-yearly figures rather than yearly figures."
News about POP
POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday afternoon via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the next 7 days. According to schedule, our next release of regular survey findings will be January 9, 2007, Tuesday, between 1pm to 2pm, when the latest findings of people's appraisal of society's current conditions will be released.
Our general practice is to answer all questions on the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site as soon as we receive them, but we will not further comment on the findings. We welcome questions for follow-up purpose, please email them to us at . 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 POP, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.
For the whole of last year, we have included in our regular press releases a small educational section for the purpose of sharing our research experience with the readers and the general public, and the subject of our education section today is "About HKUPOP". In the near future, we will step up our effort in promoting general civic education, and enhance our POP Site accordingly.
About HKUPOP
People's satisfaction with the performance of Legislative Council members, Hong Kong Police Force and PLA's Hong Kong Garrison survey
Regarding the development of our surveys on people's satisfaction with the performance of Legislative Council members, we have explained it in our press release of October 3, 2006. Today, we introduce the development of our surveys on people's satisfaction with the Hong Kong Police Force and PLA's Hong Kong Garrison, and piece together after some nominal editing the development of surveys on people's satisfaction with the performance of Legislative Council members, in order to give readers a more comprehensive picture of such developments.
(1) Mapping people's satisfaction with the performance of Legislative Council members
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The First Legislative Council of the HKSAR was formed one year after the handover of Hong Kong. In July 1998, HKUPOP began our regular surveys on people's satisfaction with the performance of Legislative Council members in general. When the Second Legislative Council was formed two years later, we simply changed the name of the survey from "First Legco" to "Second Legco", without changing the research design. In October 2004, the "Third Legco" subsequently replaced the "Second Legco". From the beginning to its end, the "First Legco" surveys were conducted once every month. For the "Second Legco" surveys, the frequency was changed to once every two months until July 2003. Thereafter, the "Third Legco" surveys are conducted once every three months to cope with the changing social conditions.
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The question wordings used in the questionnaire are "Are you satisfied with the overall performance of the members of HKSAR Legislative Council?". Interviewers then probed respondents' degree of satisfaction and respondents could choose a single response ranged from "very satisfied", "quite satisfied", "half-half", "not quite satisfied" to "very dissatisfied".
(2) Mapping people's satisfaction with the performance of the Hong Kong Police Force and PLA's Hong Kong Garrison
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Shortly after the handover of Hong Kong in July 1997, HKUPOP began our regular surveys on people's satisfaction with the performance of the Hong Kong Police Force and PLA's Hong Kong Garrison. From the beginning, the surveys were conducted once every month. Then in September 2000 the frequency was changed to once every two months. Since October 2003, the surveys have been conducted once every three months to cope with the changing social conditions.
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The question wordings used in the questionnaire are "Are you satisfied with the performance of the Hong Kong Police Force / People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison?" Interviewers then probed respondents' degree of satisfaction and respondents could choose a single response ranged from "very satisfied", "quite satisfied", "half-half", "not quite satisfied" to "very dissatisfied".
Before May 2000, the sample size of our regular surveys was set at slightly over 500, we increased it to at least 1,000 after that. The above surveys are no exceptions. The findings of these surveys are now published regularly on-line at our HKU POP Site, while all previous findings published via our newsletter POP Express have also been uploaded on-line in various formats.
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