Lawmakers veto praise to Nobel Prize winner

A motion to praise the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo for winning the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was fiercely criticised yesterday by the majority of Macau’s lawmakers

A clear majority of the Legislative Assembly (AL) members voted yesterday against a motion to praise the jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo for winning the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Only the three pan-democrat lawmakers – who had launched the motion – voted favourably on the controversial proposal.
As he had promised a few days ago, Au Kam San suggested the AL should “congratulate” Liu for being awarded the Peace Prize. “It’s an honour for the Chinese people and the country’s progress in the last 20 years,” he stressed. Furthermore, Au added, it’s “a recognition to Liu Xiaobo’s pacific and rational efforts for more freedom in China”.
However, the motion, as well as the Norwegian Nobel committee’s decision, were fiercely criticised by the other lawmakers. “He’s a criminal,” Fong Chi Keong said – an expression that was repeated by most other AL members.
Liu Xiaobo was a key figure in the pro-democracy student movement in China in 1989, which was brutally crushed by Chinese authorities and culminated in the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
He had been detained on several occasions, and in December 2009 he was convicted of subversion and sentenced to 11 years in prison, following the 2008 release of “Charter 08”, a manifesto for reform signed by more than 300 Chinese intellectuals, academics and writers.


Judicial ‘interference’

“As a political institution who is part of China, the Legislative Assembly cannot vote against a decision made by a mainland court, because we also wouldn’t want a political institution from mainland China commenting on a judicial decision made in Macau. That’s part of the ‘one country, two systems’ model,” lawyer Leonel Alves explained.
A position supported by Tsui Wai Kwan, who described the proposal as “ridiculous and totally inappropriate”. Cheang Chi Keong also stressed that to praise Liu Xiaobo would be “an interference in China’s internal affairs”.
“It would jeopardise our sacred mission: to protect the Basic Law,” he said.
“It could be seen as an attempt to interfere with the judicial independence,” Chan Meng Kam and Ung Choi Kun agreed. The lawmakers also said “it’s not proper at a constitutional level”.
Fong Chi Keong was the sternest critic of both the proposal and of the Nobel Prize winner. Liu Xiaobo “is a men who has ruthlessly criticised the Chinese culture and campaigned for a total westernisation of our country,” he accused. “He has urged people to fight against the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialist society and worships a culture of colonisation,” the lawmaker added.


‘Attack on China’

Further criticism was aimed at the Nobel committee decision, with Fong Chi Keong calling it “an act that desecrates the rule of law.”
“He clearly doesn’t fulfill the criteria,” the lawmaker emphasised. Liu Xiaobo “has done nothing to contribute to world peace,” Vong Hin Fai and Tong Io Cheng agreed.
“Notwithstanding the fact that he might be a criminal or not, the Nobel Peace Prize winner should be someone with a great contribution to society. If now all it takes is to write a few things on blogs and such, then there are many people in Macau equally fit to receive that award,” Vitor Cheung Lup Kwan said.
Kou Hoi In, Ho Iat Seng and Chui Sai Cheong went even further to state that the Nobel committee’s decision “will encourage the perpetration of further crimes”. The announcement made ten days ago angered Beijing, who warned that ties with Norway would suffer.
“This decision is not innocent at all,” Fong Chi Keong said. “It’s born of Western ideology’s prejudice towards China,” he added. “It’s an attack on China by the international community,” Vitor Cheung agreed. “The Western political regime does not represent freedom,” Mak Soi Kun said, “when they have promoted war in Afghanistan and in Iran”.
Only the three pan-democrat lawmakers voted in favour of the praise motion, with José Pereira Coutinho abstaining.