THE E-MAIL FORUM Q Is the Hang Seng Bank charging too much for its Sars loans? The short-term relief personal loan is offered as a commercial banking product aimed at providing relief to customers with short-term financial difficulties. The interest rate was decided after due consideration to the credit risk involved. As we offer an interest-free repayment 'holiday' for the first three months, the annualised percentage rate (APR) is competitive. If we take a normal Hang Seng personal instalment loan of $20,000 as the basis for comparison, the APR based on a 12-month repayment period for the relief personal loan (at 18.94 per cent) is more preferential than the standard personal loan of the same amount and repayment period (at 22.23 per cent). It is not true that it would be better for the target customers to borrow from a credit card than apply for the relief personal loan. There are credit card issuers charging 18 per cent interest (equivalent to an APR of 18.57 per cent). However, this rate is applicable only to the unpaid credit card balance of retail purchases. If a customer of any of these credit cards issuers draws cash out of an ATM machine to cope with his or her living expenses which cannot be put on a credit card as retail purchases, he or she will bear interest ranging from 22.5 per cent to 30 per cent (equivalent to an APR of 27.09 per cent to 34.2 per cent respectively) in the market. If a person suffering from a pay cut applies for a personal loan using his or her current salary proof as support, the application probably will not be approved easily. In our relief personal loan scenario, since the product is designed to target this group of customers, we are prepared to be more accommodating. William Leung, deputy general manager and deputy head of retail banking Hang Seng Bank Q Will the village elections be free and fair? No election, whether local or national, will ever be 100 per cent free and fair. This can be said about villages that function like small communities, where they have their own way of dealing with domestic affairs. The introduction of non-indigenous residents to participate in village representative elections will only make the forthcoming elections more unfair. There is a potential conflict of interest between the leaders of the 'resident' representatives and the 'indigenous inhabitant' representatives. This leads to the belief that certain customs will gradually diminish once residents have a say in the villages' affairs. For example, the use of firecrackers to celebrate major events has always been part of the tradition. However, it is illegal. Given the resident representative leaders do not have a 'native son' background, would they tolerate the continuance of these customs or put to an end to them by obeying the law? There is even speculation within the communities that once those residents have the same rights as themselves, they will have to share the inheritance from their ancestors. This land in the New Territories was owned by the natives before British colonisation. With expanding urban development, such as the construction of the West Rail track, the indigenous inhabitants are given millions of dollars compensation for land reclamation. Clearly, the indigenous interest groups have every right to worry about allowing outsiders participate in their village affairs. Complaints over the elections are just the beginning of a struggle between what the government believes is unity among villagers and what the indigenous inhabitants believe is the government undermining their prestigious status that dates back to the Qing dynasty. Alan Chan, Yuen Long Q Is enough being done by the government in the Sars clean-up? I think what we need to focus on is not just whether enough money is being spent on the clean-up. The amount is meaningless. On one hand, it is not just the responsibility of the government but also the public. On the other hand, it is necessary to raise people's consciousness. If people keep on littering or spitting, spending even more money on hosing and cleaning the city will be a waste. In the long term, it is essential to educate the younger generation about public hygiene. As Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said, a clean-up campaign should be launched regularly to urge everybody in Hong Kong to play a role. The aim should not just be to conquer Sars but improve the quality of life of every Hongkonger. I hope one day Hong Kong is famous for its cleanliness. Let's try! Diana Wong On Yi Tseung Kwan O Q Should Sars be dealt with under centralised control ? You posed this question in the Post on April 29 and the answer was right there in the Letters column on the same day. Hilton Cheong Leen was a most capable politician in the 'good old days', and it is good to see that he is still active and right on the ball today. His proposal that the Hong Kong government provide two to three years of free facilities for the WHO to tackle the Sars problem in the city is excellent, and I think that WHO would co-ordinate the centralised control that is needed. Let's see what our officials and our administrators do with this sound proposal. Gordon Andreassend, Wan Chai