The new Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On and his team of five secretaries will debut their 2010 Policy Address (LAG) from today.
Usually, the Policy Address is announced in November, but it was delayed as the new head of the Government was not yet sworn in at that time. Every year, the delivery of the LAG is surrounded by many expectations and this year people’s attention is more tuned in than ever on the new Chief Executive. The Macau Daily Times tried to find out what the expectations of experts and professionals from each of the five Government areas are for today.
Some advocated old policies, others had risen the bar of exigency of their demands due to previous promises made by Chui Sai On. At the end of the day, what they want to know is what is this “sunshine” Government announced by the Chief Executive during his electoral campaign.
The general call from experts and professionals is for more information and, most of all, for plans for the future.

Administration and Justice: Mistakes to correct

The secretary for Administration and Justice, Florinda Chan, carries a heavy weight on her shoulders. Since the establishment of the Macau Special Administration Region many reforms have been undertaken in her office, but people are not happy at all. Experts demand old promises to be kept, mistakes to be corrected, measures to make public servants’ life easier and concrete plans.
Jose Pereira Coutinho and Monie Kuok, leaders of the two local public servants’ associations, share the same demands. The Government should, as soon as possible, update the subsidy scheme and solve the problem of the special careers that were not contemplated in the new legal regime, such as professions related to health care and mass media.
They both want to see an increase in the index of the Public Administration salary, but Pereira Coutinho is the only one to suggest a raise from 59 to 62. Monie Kuok just asks for an update in accordance with the inflation rate.
Legal expert Antonio Katchi from Macau Polytechnic Institute suggested not only the increase of civil servant’s wages and advancement of their social benefits, but also a comprehensive list of measures: integration of civil servants in permanent positions, namely by means of the filling-up of all existent vacancies and the upsizing of the manpower legally authorised for each department; massive recruitment of new public servants with the purpose of adequately staffing public services, reducing civil servants’ workload and eliminating unemployment; restore the former civil servants’ retirement system; and restore the tax exemption of civil servants’ wages.

Eilo Wu:  ‘I hope the new Chief Executive would not only talk about this year’s policies, but to establish a plan which explains how he will gradually set up different priorities.’

The coordinator in the department of Government and Public Administration at the University of Macau (UM), Eilo Wu, advises the Government to give more details on the “sunshine policies” the new Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On announced during his electoral campaign. Mostly, the scholar wants to hear Chui talking about a medium term plan.
“I hope the new Chief Executive would not only talk about this year’s policies, but to establish a plan which explains how he will gradually set up different priorities,” he said.
He also added that there are so many issues that need guidelines for the future. In particular, how the Government will complete the social housing project and the pension scheme.

A reversal of policies

Antonio Katchi’s review of the last policies in Public Administration and Justice is rather harsh: “erosion of the rule of law; growing repression and attacks on freedom and other human rights; increasing authoritarianism (and even totalitarianism, with a fanatical quest for false consensus), subservience, and fear within the public services; hostility to democracy; and social disadvantages of the civil servants.”
“Against this backdrop, I can only desire a complete reversal of policies,” he said. “First and foremost, I would like to hear the Government announcing the submission to the Legislative Assembly [AL] of a series of bills intended to correct the mistakes committed during Edmund Ho Hau Wah’s mandates,” he continued.
Katchi’s list asks the Government to: repeal the law governing the relationship between normative acts; repeal the law on State security defence; abolish the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) and reinstate the municipalities with elected bodies; review electoral laws with the aim of submitting both the Chief Executive and all the seats of the AL to universal suffrage starting from the next election.
Finally, in the sphere of the judicial power, two major tendencies should be pointed out, according to the scholar: a growing inefficiency of the judiciary and a political alignment of the Court of Final Appeal with the Government and the capitalists.