Coutinho: Influential lawmakers want to restrict free speech

Pereira Coutinho (left) and Leong Veng Chai

Lawmaker José Pereira Coutinho is calling for a reconsideration of measures that he fears will restrict lawmakers’ freedom of speech at the Legislative Assembly (AL).

Following his disappointment over the proposed ban on banners at the AL, which was recently withdrawn from vote, Coutinho lamented that some legislators are still seeking to protect their own interests by supporting the shortening of lawmakers’ oral inquiry time at plenary sessions.

Last week, the AL passed a motion to discuss the amendment of AL internal rules, which was criticized by several lawmakers.

The original draft of the bill included 24 proposals, with one of them proposing to reduce lawmakers’ oral inquiry time from the current five minutes to three minutes.

Another proposal was to remove the restrictions on the length of time of some sessions of the lawmakers’ inquiries to government representatives.

Coutinho, who is also president of the Macau Civil Servants Association (ATFPM) has again condemned the government for making such proposals. His criticism stems from his belief that a reduced window of opportunity will discourage lawmakers from fully exercising their freedom of speech.

“In some sense, we feel that it would be more and more difficult for us to exercise the right to ask questions to the government,” the lawmaker commented.

He also cited his belief that some of the proposals would create opportunities for the government to selectively answer lawmakers’ inquiries.

The legislator added that when the government selectively replies to their inquiries, it would most likely mean that some of the public’s concerns will be ignored.

“We can ask two or three questions but they can only choose to answer one. So what happens to the other questions? How do we explain it to the residents?” he asked

He also doubted that legislators would be able to comprehensively fulfill their duties to serve the public when the government becomes selective in answering issues.

Despite the discussion of amendments to AL internal rules, which was held on Thursday, Coutinho was still not satisfied, as the lack of transparency in the house was not discussed.

“There are still very important issues that the AL didn’t tackle like the transparency of its six working commissions,” he said.

Coutinho pointed to Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, stressing that legislators in the neighboring SAR are obliged to declare their other professions and that this information is listed in the government’s official website.

The lawmaker lamented that there is no system in the region that oversees what legislators are doing aside from being involved in the AL. He also recalled that there have already been several instances where their speech rights were subjugated.

“There have been, in the past, many ways to suppress legislators. We feel that in the future they will still suppress our freedom of speech.”

“We really don’t know exactly who is behind the scenes doing that. We don’t think it’s something coming from the Macau government,” the lawmaker continued.

Coutinho stressed that only a few “influential lawmakers” are members of the AL and government institutions and that this discrepancy affects the administration works.

According to him, the influential lawmakers are working on self-interest “so they can still survive by having a monopoly in one of the most important economic activities in Macau.”

Coutinho has further hinted that the lack of transparency in the MSAR government provides convenience for the “few influential lawmakers” to continue their hidden agenda.