Lies, damned lies, and surveys

According to a poll released five months ago, Hongkongers thought it was more important to have a central slaughterhouse for chickens than universal suffrage. The poll had been commissioned by the Central Policy Unit (CPU), the government think-tank, and newly installed Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen shocked members of the legislature by unveiling the results.

Mr Tsang said his administration would 'listen to the people', and its policies would be guided by that particular opinion survey. Universal suffrage, he said, ranked only 13th on a list of 25 policy areas that concerned people the most.

The top-priority issues were unemployment, better governance and pollution.

In October, when Chief Secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan disclosed the government's electoral reform package, he announced that the proposals were supported by a majority of the public - according to another poll commissioned by the CPU and conducted by Polytechnic University.

The administration, it seems, is resorting to government-by-survey. There is nothing wrong, of course, with taking heed of opinion surveys.

But this administration has a history of manipulating them, and distorting public opinion. In the hands of the government, surveys - which Mr Tsang calls the 'voice of the people' - are easily abused and can be made to say anything.