Severo Portela
Almost nobody in good faith would doubt the diligence and seriousness with which the Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election – aka CAEAL – took the mission to update the rules which frame the 6th selection of the MSAR legislative council. Unfortunately, the outcome of almost each and every CAEAL ruling on campaign matters looks likely to become a gross violation of the Basic Law. Viewed from another perspective, the very drafting of the regulation seems to be an involuntary exercise in political satire.
Candidate Agnes Lam, herself a former journalist and now the deputy Dean of UM’s Faculty of Social Sciences, says the campaign rules are “suppressing” the campaign itself. Indeed, the haze of permitted civic matters (as per CAEAL lingo) and forbidden political and electoral stuff, followed by a decisive (we do have to pinch ourselves) requirement to delete from online platforms “information that aims to draw public attention to candidates”…is not only funny, but calls for an accommodation of a cloud patrol. Better to choose as a bedside book happy Huxley than gloomy Orwell.
Apparently, the leader of the pro-democracy camp, Sulu Sou, was alarmed enough to hide his pages and delete forbidden information and messages. Until the second of September, rooky candidates are not allowed to promote their opinions; on the other hand, the current legislators can give voice to their sentences on the Nam Van Lakes floor. Speaking of asymmetry or plain unfairness…even given the apparent CAEAL standards! It is not at all comforting that the chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission is a judge by trade, Tong Hio Fong.
In the coming campaign fortnight, will all 192 candidates go full throttle to make the most for the four-yearly electoral season? Yes and no. CAEAL has in place guidelines for everything from the notice boards to propaganda material, subject to a lucky draw, to the venues where the candidates are allowed to conduct promotional activities, subject to another lucky draw. Even the roads to traverse and the designated campaign venues will be subject to a lucky draw.
As mentioned above, we admit that the Tong Hio Tong committee does not lack diligence or rationale to address the CAEAL mission, despite the ensemble looking like a mix of double-talkers and paternalism. But we think CAEAL went too far in the process of hyper-regulating a simple electoral process; a pimple political process happening every four years. It is true the tightening happens when refreshing the Legislative Assembly; but there is no advantage in handling the electoral process to such an extent that subordination of political credibility is at stake. Ignore the content and vote.
Departing veteran legislator, Chan Meng Kam, saw the trap of irrelevance and left a serious warning about the sluggish democratization in the Macau Special Administrative Region where the directly-elected lawmakers are in a rude minority. Macau is going to vote in the sixth chamber: 19 appointed members (7) and representing functional constituencies (12); and only 14 directly-elected members. Just do the math!
