AL Plenary | Nine lawmakers gang up against Sulu Sou

Sulu Sou

In a Legislative Assembly (AL) session yesterday, nine lawmakers rounded on lawmaker Sulu Sou to criticize him for his position on last week’s debate on the creation of the Municipal Affairs Bureau (ICM).

The session was arranged to discuss and approve in detail the bill regarding the “Legal Regime of the rights and interests of elderly citizens” as well as to vote on the proposal of debate in the plenary of the Viva Macau airliner banckrupcy brought by the initiative of lawmakers Jose Pereira Coutinho and Sulu Sou. Instead of the lawmakers using the period to question the government or propose suggestions to address problems affecting the population, they criticized the deliberately provocative position taken by Sou during the July 30 session.

Ma Chi Seng, Kou Hoi In, Ip Sio Kai, Wu Chou Kit, Chan Wa Keong, Iau Teng Pio, Fong Ka Chio, Lao Chi Ngai and Pang Chuan were the nine lawmakers that subscribed to spoken enquiries that turned out to be just expressions of criticism of  the behavior of Sou. They argued that the purpose of the interventions was to “restore the historical truth.”

Lawmaker Ma was the first to address the topic saying, “we were accused of killing the municipal democracy and this is a twist of the reality,” adding, “it is impossible to put the democracy in practice just with slogans that ignore juridical facts.”

In a very critical tone, Ma said that the words used by Sou had “threatening content,” adding also “to shout, be grumpy and throw things are also behaviors that do not respect the regime of the Assembly.”

He said that such behavior “created a bad example for society” and introduced at the AL “a street brawl model.”
Lawmaker Kou Hoi In complemented the comments with harsh words classifying the intervention of Sou as a “mockery and an abuse of the rules” accusing Sou of being “too playful, abusing his powers [as a legislator] just to show off” and of “using this chamber as a theater, forcing the whole hemicycle to collaborate in his ridiculous show.”

Kou, addressing the plenary as usual in his name and in the name of Ip Sio Kai concluded by saying, “he uses democracy to cover up his absolutist ideas.”

Kou Hoi In (right)

“The core of democracy is respecting others. Those who are arrogant, uncompromising, presumptuous, abuse their power, do not respect the rules and do not have the qualities to be a democrat cannot talk about democracy,” he said. “Calling himself a member of a democratic party is the biggest insult to democracy.”

Meanwhile, lawmakers Lao and Pang, using the same insulting tone, accused Sou of “attempting to introduce the bad parliamentary culture of the neighboring regions or the culture of demonstration into our chamber, [which] pulls into question its solemnity.”

“This not only provokes disrespect, but also does not fit the parliamentary essence. This is not about the parliamentary culture of Macau, and in the end, the public will hate it,” he said. “This distorted behavior must be censored and can not be allowed to continue to happen in our hemicycle.” 

Debate proposal by Coutinho and Sou voted down

A proposal to debate the Viva Macau case in the AL plenary was yesterday voted down by the majority of the lawmakers.

Raised on the initiative of lawmakers Jose Pereira Coutinho and Sulu Sou, who intended to clarify why the government not was able to recover the invested money and who is responsible for the failure, the motion received only six votes in favor and 24 against.

Besides the two bidders Coutinho and Sou, Ng Kuok Cheong, Au Kam San, Agnes Lam and Ella Lei, also voted in favor.

In the short debate prior to the vote, several of the lawmakers that voted against remarked that the proposal made no sense since the issue is already being addressed by a follow-up committee of the AL and is under investigation by the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC).

Several lawmakers also noted that this is not the right time to address the problem as it was almost certain that they could not obtain any more information on the topic, preferring to “give time” to the CCAC to investigate.

Others, like Mak Soi Kun, even showed irritation with the topic, accusing the proposal of being a way to turn  a behind-closed-doors discussion into one in the public eye.

After the voting, lawmaker Song Pek Kei, one of the many that voted against, addressed the plenary as a vote declaration, accusing Coutinho and Sou of “wanting to use the AL as a court” and trying to “interfere with the judiciary authorities.”

Instead the plenary approved by full consensus the bill that established the “Legal Regime of the rights and interests of elderly citizens” with a debate in which the lawmakers called on the government to offer more extensive support to senior citizens, namely by raising the subsidies and elderly pensions. On the topic, Secretary Alexis Tam promised to “study” the case and to raise the pension “soon” and “according to the government’s economic capabilities.”

On the lawmakers’agenda

BUS SERVICE Ho Ion Sang, addressing the renewal of the public bus companies’ concessions, described the government’s solution as a “mockery.” The lawmaker criticized the inaction from the government to address the problem that has been raised by the Commission Against Corruption since 2011; that it is an “illegal model” of public transportation. Ho urged the government to review the current status of the contract with “Macau Pass” electronic payments that, in his words, suffers from the “illness of the monopolies.” On the topic, Ho called on the government to seriously consider other models “in order to promote diversification and consequent competition.”

ROAD SAFETY Sulu Sou delivered a spoken inquiry in which he addressed the concerns of motorcyclists regarding both road safety and parking solutions. Sou recalled that in 2007 thousands of motorcyclists took part in a slow-drive protest against law enforcement methods by the authorities. “It has been more than 10 years, but the chaotic situation of many vehicles and a few parking spaces has not yet been solved.” Sou gave as an example the neighboring region of Hong Kong where the government “has realized in recent years that this ‘fines deterrent illusion’ is nothing more than a ‘hiding the head in the sand policy’ that does not focus on real problems.”

LAND PLOTS Ella Lei and Au Kam San said that the government’s reclamation of undeveloped land plots is beneficial for Macau society. In two separate interventions, lawmakers Ella Lei and Au Kam San addressed the problem of the land concessions, recalling that “contrary to what many people claim” the mechanism of not allowing the extension of expired land concessions was already in the previous land law and is not exclusive from the latest amendment. In this sense, the lawmakers consider that the current system of reclaiming undeveloped land plots is superior to a system that concedes “unregulated” concessions without a public tender. Both agree also that “is not urgent” to amend the current land law.