RAINPARTLY CLOUDY

FOG DUST

TYPHOONDRIZZLE THUNDER SNOW

SNOW FLURRIES

ISOLATED THUNDER

ISOLATED SHOWERS HAIL

WINDYCLOUDY / OVERCAST

SUNNY SHOWER

HONG KONGFORECAST

SMGM Hong Kong ObservatoryEPD www.epd.gov.hk

DATA SOURCEOther cities visit: www.scmp.com

Information visit: www.metra.info

TIDES MOON & SUN

ASIA TODAY

I Pollutant concentrations are well within the air quality standards.II Pollutant concentrations are generally within the air quality standards.III Concentrations of individual pollutants may approach or exceed the air quality standards.IV Air quality standards are generally exceeded.V Air quality standards are significantly exceeded.

THE WORLD TODAY

ISOBAR CHARTFRONTS

TROUGH

COLD

WARM

OCCLUDED

STATIONARY

AS AT 2PM YESTERDAY

THE AMERICAS

MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

EUROPE

ASIA-PACIFIC MIN MAX

Tomorrowmainly fine with morning fog.

Moonrise 14:46Moonset 02:48Sunrise 06:05Sunset 18:43

Force 3 60-90% 9 Medium to High WIND HUMIDITY UV INDEX POLLUTION

N

Todaymainly fine. relatively low visibility.

21 28

Chongqing 15 23

Manila 25 32

Kunming 13 26 Naha 18 24

Shanghai 6 20

Osaka 11 22

Taipei 18 28

Harbin 3 23 Sapporo 2 15

Changchun 7 24

Shenyang 7 22

Seoul 7 18 Tokyo 11 20

Beijing 12 28

Hanoi 19 30

Xian 15 28

Singapore 25 32

Wuhan 15 25

Tianjin 12 27

Haikou 20 29

Kuala Lumpur 24 34

Calcutta 27 35 Fuzhou 15 26

Hangzhou 15 26

Hong Kong 21 28

Guangzhou 19

Phuket 26 29

21 282121211 28

Mondaycloudy. showers at first.

19 2319 23

Sundayoccasional rain. foggy at first.

22 2522 25

Saturdaysunny periods with morning coastal fog.

22 292222 292929

Low 0.6m 00:12High 1.5m 07:15Low 1.2m 11:36High 2.0m 18:13

PEARL RIVER DELTA REGIONAL AIR QUALITY MAP

I Pollutant concentrations are well within the air quality standards.

PEARL RIVER DELTA REGIONAL AIR QUALITY MAPAL AIR QUALITY MAPR QUALITY MAPPEARL RIVERPEARL RIVER AR DELTA REGIONAL AR DELTA REGIONAL AIRNAL AIAIR RR

GUANGZHOU

HONG KONG

Chengdu 13 24 Lhasa 6 14

Hiroshima 4 18

Kathmandu 11 25 Changsha 16 26

Qingdao 8 15

1 28

Kaohsiung 21 24

Ho Chi Minh City 23 34

Bangkok 27 34

Yangon 25 36

Chennai 26 36 Phnom Penh 23 38

Vientiane 21 38

Hohhot 6 20

Amsterdam mainly fine 4 14 Athens showers 13 20 Barcelona few showers 12 16 Belgrade rain 2 10 Berlin showers 5 10 Brussels mainly fine 4 14 Budapest few showers 3 11 Copenhagen fine 4 12 Dublin cloudy 8 15 Frankfurt fine 2 15 Geneva mainly fine 7 14 Helsinki cloudy 0 7 Istanbul rain 10 16 Lisbon fine 16 27 London mainly fine 1 13 Madrid fine 6 26 Milan mainly fine 6 15 Moscow few showers 0 6 Munich mainly fine 4 11 Oslo fine 1 11 Paris fine 4 16 Prague few showers 1 9 Rome mainly fine 7 16 Stockholm fine 1 10 Vienna showers 4 8 Zurich mainly fine 2 14

Abu Dhabi cloudy 26 33 Amman fine 6 24 Bahrain few showers 21 24 Beirut fine 13 22 Cairo fine 13 27 Cape Town fine 13 25 Casablanca fine 20 28 Doha showers 23 29 Dubai cloudy 28 34 Jeddah fine 21 32 Johannesburg showers 11 21 Kuwait mainly fine 15 30 Riyadh fine 20 29 Tel Aviv fine 7 24

Atlanta fine 10 24 Bogota rain 10 17 Boston few showers 6 16 Brasilia mainly fine 18 27 Buenos Aires few showers 13 22 Calgary showers -1 8 Caracas few showers 23 27 Chicago mainly fine 4 23 Dallas thunder 18 28 Detroit mainly fine 5 12 Houston cloudy 19 26 Las Vegas mainly fine 8 22 Lima mainly fine 17 24 Los Angeles fine 11 22 Mexico City few showers 11 29 Miami showers 23 30 Montreal few showers 4 10 New York fine 5 17 Ottawa few showers 2 8 Rio De Janeiro fine 24 28 San Francisco fine 6 16 Santiago few showers 7 18 Seattle rain 4 8 Toronto fine 3 10 Vancouver showers 4 9 Washington DC fine 8 20

Adelaide mainly fine 12 21 Auckland fine 12 21 Bangalore fine 22 34 Brisbane fine 15 28 Brunei mainly fine 24 32 Busan (Pusan) fine 10 16 Canberra fine 5 19 Colombo thunder 25 31 Darwin thunder 24 30 Delhi fine 20 33 Denpasar showers 24 29 Dhaka few showers 23 34 Hobart showers 13 16 Honolulu fine 21 27 Islamabad fine 18 32 Jakarta few showers 24 32 Karachi mainly fine 25 35 Male/Maldives thunder 28 29 Melbourne few showers 13 19 Mumbai fine 25 34 Perth fine 13 26 Sydney fine 13 25 Tashkent mainly fine 18 32 Wellington mainly fine 14 18

1014101410161016

FORECAST API LEVEL MIN MAX

General Station Medium to High 50 70Roadside Station High to Very High 75 115

POLLUTION TODAY'S FORECAST

GENERAL SITUATION (11PM YESTERDAY)

A weak ridge of high pressure brought generally fine weather to the South China coastal areas. The fresh easterly airstream affecting the coast of Guangdong also moderated. Locally, it was dry today and the relative humidity generally fell below 60 per cent in the morning. The temperature over most parts of the territory rose to 28 degrees or above in the afternoon. A maritime airstream is expected to a affect the south China coastal areas in the next couple of days.

POLLUTION YESTERDAYGENERAL STATIONS API LEVEL MIN MAX

Central/Western High 59 67Eastern High 58 66Kwai Chung High 55 65Kwun Tong High 58 66Sha Tin High 56 67Sham Shui Po High 63 70Tai Po High 57 67Tap Mun High 59 70Tsuen Wan High 58 64Tung Chung High 52 61Yuen Long High 58 67

Causeway Bay High 70 87Central/Western High 88 98Mong Kok Very High 101 115

ROADSIDE STATIONS API LEVEL MIN MAX

API = AIR POLLUTION INDEX WWW.EPD.GOV.HK

HONG KONG OBSERVATORY

TEMPERATURES MIN MAX

YESTERDAY'S READINGS

Total rainfall since January 1st is 49.6 mm against an average of 244.1 mm.

Chek Lap Kok 20.6 27.4 Cheung Chau 19.4 25.8 Hong Kong Park 20.0 27.2 King's Park 19.5 27.4 Lau Fau Shan 19.8 27.3 Sai Kung 19.5 24.6 Sha Tin 19.8 28.7 Ta Kwu Ling 19.6 29.3 Wong Chuk Hang 19.5 27.7

Humidity (%) 45 80Sunshine (Hours) 5.7Rainfall (mm) 0.01

Grass 19.5 Air Temperature 20.2 28.5

Dalian Rain 10 15Guilin Cloudy 19 29Guiyang Cloudy 13 23Hefei Cloudy 15 25Jinan Fine 19 28Lanzhou Cloudy 10 24Nanchang Cloudy 16 25Nanjing Cloudy 13 27Nanning Cloudy 20 30Shijiazhuang Fine 14 27Taiyuan Fine 9 27Urumqi Fine 12 24

Xiamen Fine 17 27Xining Rain 4 14Yinchuan Cloudy 10 23Zhengzhou Fine 14 29

Wenzhou Showers 13 25

Cloudy periods at first and mainly fine during the day. Visibility relatively low. Temperatures will range between 21 and 28 degrees. Moderate east to southeasterly winds. Morning fog and hot afternoons in the following couple of days.

A2 Hong Kong & Delta THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011 SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

Weather

Police have launched an investiga-tion after spray-painted stencil draw-ings of detained mainland artist AiWeiwei appeared on two sec-tions of pavement and footbridgewalls in Central and Sheung Wan.

The stencils which carried Ai’s im-age and the message “Who’s afraid ofAi Weiwei?” were discovered by pa-trolling police officers shortly after6am yesterday in Wing Lok Street,Sheung Wan and Cochrane Street,Central.

Police have classified the case as

one of criminal damage and detec-tives from Central police station areinvestigating. No one has been ar-rested.

About half an hour before thestencils were discovered, red paintwas found to have been splashed onthe rolling shutters of a dried seafoodshop, also in Wing Lok Street. Policesaid the two incidents were notlinked.

Ai, 53, was taken from Beijing’sairport on April 3 as he prepared to flyto Hong Kong and officials later saidhe was under investigation for sus-pected economic crimes. The main-

land authorities have refused to re-veal Ai’s whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai,Hong Kong’s member of the NationalPeople’s Congress Standing Com-mittee, said she would ask the rele-vant departments about Ai’s case.

“The law stipulates that policehave to notify a detainee’s familyabout his detention within 48 hours.Why wasn’t his family informed? Idon’t know who Ai Weiwei is andwhether he is a dissident.

“But every Chinese citizen shouldenjoy the same legal protection,” shesaid.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Sup-port of Patriotic Democratic Move-ments in China has written to all localdeputies to the National People’sCongress, asking them to urge thecentral government to release theartist and all other detained activists.

Alliance chairman Lee Cheuk-yansaid he hoped the Hong Kong depu-ties would write a joint petition toBeijing regarding Ai, as they did in thecase of Zhao Lianhai , a cam-paigner for safer milk, who was jailedand later released on medical parole.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Activists sent to labour camp A5

“Who’s afraid of Ai Weiwei?” reads the caption on a stencil image of the detained mainland artist, one of a series sprayed onto a pavement at Wing Lok Street, Sheung Wan. Photo: David Wong

Police investigate Ai Weiwei street artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Fanny W. Y. Fung and Clifford Lo I don’t know whether

Ai Weiwei is adissident. But everyChinese citizenshould enjoy thesame legal protection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, a member of the NPC Standing Committee

Some lawmakers disclose their inter-ests frequently, and many of themore candid are directly elected.Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chanlisted HK$6.45 in “goods” as a dona-tion from fellow party member Au-drey Eu Yuet-mee, although it’s notnecessary to report such triflingamounts. Legco guidelines requirelawmakers to declare donations ofHK$10,000 and above.

Lawmaker “Long Hair” LeungKwok-hung declared he was an “un-remunerated director” of pirate radiostation Citizens’ Radio. Two Legcomembers – Cheung Hok-ming andLeung Yiu-chung, who both repre-sent the New Territories West con-stituency – include exact addresseswhen declaring property.

In contrast, half the functionalconstituency members who ownproperty don’t disclose how manythey have or where they are.

“Properties in Hong Kong, Chinaand Canada,” is all that is stated onthe property declaration form ofAbraham Razack, who represents thereal estate and construction sector.

Only 15 per cent of directly electedlawmakers were similarly vague intheir disclosures.

Political scientist Ma Ngok, an as-sociate professor at Chinese Univer-sity, said directly elected lawmakersknew they were more accountablebecause voters could always punishor reward them at the ballot box.

“If I know that a guy is connectedwith a tobacco company and I knowthat he is going to be relatively liberaltowards other tobacco companies –on tobacco bans, for example, on ad-vertisements – I will take it into ac-count when I vote for him,” Ma said.

“If I think that he is getting a lot ofdonations from tobacco companiesand is not going to vote for the bansbut I think he is doing OK in otherpolicy areas, then I can still vote forhim – that’s OK.”

The city’s functional constituen-cies, comprising half of Legco, werenot universally elected and thereforeunaccountable to the public. “Fromthe government’s perspective, thefunctional constituencies are therebecause they want to use their exper-tise,” Ma said. “That is the best way toguarantee a conflict of interest.”

Given their deep ties to the privatesector, what might happen if Legcoand Executive Council members hadto start sitting out of meetings that af-fected corporate boards on which

they sat? “It would disable the wholesystem,” Ma said.

The civil service declaration sys-tem differs greatly from those forExco and Legco. Stringent, clear re-quirements exist, and failure to com-ply can bring strict sanctions. Civilservants are advised on avoidingconflicts of interest in the “Civil Ser-vants’ Guide to Good Practices”.

A first step to improving account-ability in other government bodies,according to Ma, would be the gov-ernment setting a minimum stan-dard across every public body.

Public bodies are defined by theIndependent Commission AgainstCorruption as Exco, Legco, districtcouncils and “any board, commis-sion, committee or other body … ap-pointed by or on behalf of the chiefexecutive”.

The next step would be setting upa task force similar to the Audit Com-mission that would carry out randomchecks on members’ interests. Itwould keep public officials on theirtoes, and help retain public confi-dence in the system, Ma said. And itwould give the public the informa-tion necessary to judge for itself.

“Conflict of interest is largely a‘perception’ issue,” wrote ThomasChan, then director of corruptionprevention for the ICAC, in a paperfor an Asian Development Bank andOrganisation of Economic Co-opera-tion and Development internationalanti-corruption conference in 2005.“It is not a matter of whether youthink you have done the right thing.What matters is whether the publicthinks you have done the right thing.”

Lawmakers’patchy recordin declaringtheir assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chris Ip and Malik Yusuf

Attention to detailThe Civic Party’s Tanya Chan (above)listed “goods” donated to her by AudreyEu Yuet-mee worth, in HK dollars

$6.45. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

even required to declare any clubmemberships they hold. The system wasdesigned to avoid conflict of interests – areal and legitimate concern as manyowners of big businesses also sit onLegco or Exco.

In reality, there is no clear definitionof what a conflict of interest is and whenit can be punished. Legco, Exco andother statutory bodies all have their ownways of policing themselves.

The ambiguity of the declarationrules made it easy for politicians to skipthese requirements and difficult for thebody to punish members who fail tocomply. Members of the public are oftenleft in dark as to how authorities such asExco deal with the problem.

The Exco guidelines say that where aconflict of interest exists, the chiefexecutive can tell a member to recusehim- or herself from a meeting. In 2009,Exco held 35 meetings in which 188items were discussed. In 28 instancesone of the 30 members had to withdrawbecause of a conflict. But that is the onlyinformation made available to thepublic.

“Few people bother to ask questionsabout Exco. It’s like pulling teeth –they’re very reluctant to give anyinformation,” said Democratic Partyleader Emily Lau Wai-hing.

Legco has its fair share of problemsas well. Lawmakers who sit on corporateboards are required to disclose thenature of their businesses to the public.But 38 per cent of them have failed to doso. Generally, the requirement for Legcomembers to declare their properties isless strict than for Exco members. Forinstance, Lau Wong-fat declared fewerproperties to Legco than he did to Exco,even after the media reported on hisinterests.

While he repeatedly amended hisExco disclosures since the scandalsurfaced, his Legco propertydeclarations have remained unchangedsince 2008. The 706 properties he haddeclared and described in ample detailto Exco are simply listed in Legco as“properties in Hong Kong, Singaporeand Mainland China”.

Lau Kong-wah – the only othermember of both councils – does notinclude declarations he made to Exco,including his Hong Kong Jockey Clubmembership, in his Legco declarations.

Asked why the degree of detaildiffered, Emily Lau pointed to thecabinet’s access to secret, highlysensitive information. “Here,” she said,laughing in reference to Legco,“everything we know is publicinformation. We don’t have access toconfidential information at all.”

Sophie Leung Lau Yau-fun, chairmanof Legco’s Committee of Members’Interests, said that should not make adifference. “We are supposed to do ourown policing at the very roots,” she said.“The underlying understanding amongall is that parliamentarians aresupposed to be honourable. You have tobe on your own honour.”

Legco’s conflict-of-interestmechanism occasionally punishes thosewho cross the line.

The only lawmaker punished sincethe handover has been James To Kun-sun, who in 2005 failed to declare hisshareholding in Target Link. A motionfor admonishment was proposed andmembers (including To himself) votedfor it in large numbers.

To was considered “admonished”,but aside from that, nothing elsehappened. A motion by Lau Kong-wah tochange the name of the punishment to a“reprimand” was voted down.

In wake of the Lau Wong-fat scandal,the committee responsible forinvestigating him has asked the LegcoSecretariat to study foreign examples tosee if they should tighten up thedisclosure requirement.

Legco’s rules ‘unclear’on conflicts of interest • CONTINUED FROM A1

Lau Wong-fat, who has been clearedof wrong-doing by a Legco panel.