TNAG-2217-FCO40-3184-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 125

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unraveled the myth of the omnipotence of the colonial government.

In my 1988 survey, 54.3 percent of the respondents were of the

- opinion that compared to three years ago, the authority of the

Hong Kong government had become weaker. Among those who claimed

that the government had suffered from declining authority, 82.9

percent thought that it was the Chinese government that had

weakened its authority, while 42.5 percent were of the opinion

that it was the democratic fighters in Hong Kong who had done so.

Of all the respondents, 64.9 percent were afraid that Hong Kong's

prosperity and stability would be endangered if the government's

authority was weakened. In fact, 47.7 percent of them were

worried about political turmoil in Hong Kong before 1997. As a

result, it is no surprise to find that among those who perceived

a decline in governmental authority, 42.6 percent would like to

see the government reinvigorating its authority by draconian

measures.

Fourthly, people are more ready to take actions against the

government in order to exert influence on public policies and

decisions. What is more important is that unconventional

collective actions are increasingly used to apply pressure on the

government, despite the fact that many Hong Kong Chinese still

have reservations about such actions.38 Scanning newspaper

reports, Cheung and Louie had found an increasing tendency for

the people to use agitational and confrontational tactics against

the government for the sake of improving their quality of life and asserting their political and civil rights.39 The number of