TNAG-2119-FCO40-3025-Future-of-Hong-Kong-general-1990 — Page 81

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respondents rated the performance of the government as good or very good, while 46.6 percent considered it as about average.34

In a Hong Kong-wide survey of mine conducted in 1988, 41.2

percent of respondents considered the performance of the

government as good and .8 percent as very good. In a telephone

survey commissioned by the City and New Territories

Administration (CNTA) of the government in January 1990, 43

percent and 33 percent of respondents respectively rated the

performance of the government and the work attitude of civil

servants as good. But these figures went down to 35 percent and 29 percent respectively in March 1990.35 The percentages rating

government performance as good in July and September 1990 were 37 and 36 respectively.36 In a recent poll commissioned by a major

newspaper in Hong Kong, the results indicate some disenchantment

with the Hong Kong Government, the Governor, and British Government representatives' in Hong Kong. 37 There seems to be a

trend of worsening public ratings of government performance, and

it reflects the increasing public disappointment with the

government's competence in resolving problems.

Thirdly, even the people of Hong Kong are quite aware of the

decline in authority of the Hong Kong government and they tend to

attribute it to the intrusion of China into the local political

scene. The entry of China into the local political scene has

33 Lau and Kuan, 'The Changing Political Culture,' p. 29.

Lau and Kuan, The Ethos, p. 84.

34

35 Ming Pao Daily News, May 22, 1990, p. 3.

36 See CNTA's 'Report of an Opinion Poll in September 1990, ' (Hong Kong: CNTA, September 1990, mimeographed), p. 6.

37

South China Morning Post, October 7, 1990, p.

1.