New Macau launches forum on political reform

The New Macau Association is worried the government is using the views gathered through a ‘biased’ public consultation to prepare a report on political reform

The government’s public consultation on political reform ended yesterday amid criticism by civil groups that the process was for “political show” and one group choosing to conduct their own consultation to rival the official campaign.
In a press conference, the New Macau Association (NMA) accused the government of disrespecting the public in a consultation campaign they claim was carefully manipulated to ‘fabricate’ the opinions collected from members of the public.
By Monday the Administration had received over 1,000 opinions from the public, the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau director José Chu said.
The pan-democrats are worried the government is using the views gathered through a “biased” way as the mainstream opinion of Macau people.
They stressed that the views will be compiled into a report that will be presented to the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress (CNPC), which has a final say in the political reform.
NMA’s vice-president Scott Chiang Ming Hin lambasted the government over the consultation campaign, pointing to technical flaws and insufficient public promotion of facts and importance of the political reform.
He also mentioned defects in the method of soliciting public opinions such as accepting them through e-mails without verifying senders’ identification.
“We could have mobilised our members to send thousands of e-mails favouring or opposing political reform,” the association’s president Jason Chao Ting Hei said.
He also accused the government of intentionally suppressing public opinion by limiting the open consultation to only one of the eight sessions, in which only 37 citizens out of 490 participants had the chance to speak.
Lawmaker Ng Kuok Cheong described the official consultation campaign as “highly biased”, claiming only pro-government camps such as members of the Chief Executive election committee or appointed lawmakers had the opportunity to express their views.

Open to all

He also accused the government of only inviting pro-government civil groups to the other seven sessions, while the NMA was excluded along with other groups that are critical of the Administration.
Other civil groups such as the Macau Civic Power have also expressed their dissatisfaction with the insufficient channels for the general public to voice their concerns over political reform, and called for more sessions open to the general public in future consultations.
The NMA, meanwhile, is holding a public forum this Saturday, at 3.30pm in the Centro Pastoral Diocesano da Juventude (behind the Almirante Lacerda Municipal Market).
The association has invited government officials to join the forum. Pan-democrat lawmaker Au Kam San stressed that the administration’s decision on whether to attend will largely reflect its stance and sincerity towards the public’s genuine views over political reform.
The association, however, conceded that it had no means to ensure that the government would include the opinions expressed in the forum in the report to be submitted to the NPC standing committee. “We can only hope so,” Chao said.
The Macau Federation of Trade Unions’ Youth Committee also held a forum last weekend to gauge young people’s view on the city’s political future.
Some speakers called for increasing the number of members of the Chief Executive election committee to represent a broad spectrum of the society, while others wanted a reasonable increase of Legislative Assembly (AL) seats to reflect the interests and concerns of the working and grass-roots class.
In response, NMA said an increase of only two directly and two indirectly elected AL seats was “a step backwards” for democracy. Yet the association said it would accept such a proposal if it was the result of public consensus, for instance through a referendum.                               

S.C.