Covid-19, elections, campaign pitches in AL plenary

The four recent cases of Covid-19 registered in Macau and the upcoming elections took up a significant period of yesterday’s plenary session with an agenda dedicated to the final approval of two new laws.
In the period before the agenda, several lawmakers mentioned the current pandemic situation as well as its causes, also expressing fears that these new cases, and the fact that there is still a fear of a potential outbreak in the community, might drastically impact the local companies and residents that are still trying to survive the long period of Covid-19 restrictions.
Several lawmakers voiced their concerns to the government on the potential effects of the measures now enforced, which force businesses to close their doors for an indefinite period and endure another expected drastic drop in the number of visitors.
Lawmakers also fear that the measures taken by the government to contain the Covid-19 outbreak might also overturn the efforts to try to tackle unemployment among residents who have not been yet stabilized.
The absence in yesterday’s plenary of the lawmaker Chan Hong was also noted. Chan is current vice-principal and former principal of the Hou Kong Middle School. The school is under attack from many sectors of the population, including several lawmakers, who accuse the institution of being irresponsible in sending a group of students to an exchange activity in Xi’an at a time when the pandemic was resurgent in many provinces of the mainland.
Chan was absent from the session, and so did not hear the critics among her peers.
Also before the agenda, several incumbent lawmakers, including Wong Kit Cheng and Ella Lei, took the opportunity to do some campaigning. These members used the time for spoken inquiries to publicize the work that they have done at AL over the past term and asked for the public to continue to support them by voting for their lists in the September elections.

Fire safety and
immigration laws approved
During yesterday’s session, the AL plenary finally approved the last two laws that still needed approval before the end of the legislative term.
The Fire Safety law was quickly approved without any questions being raised. However, during the discussion of the Immigration law, several topics were raised which had already been addressed during the first reading of the law and in the scrutiny by the Standing Committee.
One of the matters that prompted debate was the collection of retinal information as personal data in addition to finger and palm prints and facial features.
The measure, seen by many lawmakers as a significant advance, was defended by the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak. Wong pointed out that while other personal and biometric characteristics may be artificially modified, the retinal and iris data is unique, unchangeable, and thus the most accurate method of biometrical identification.
The pro-democratic bloc also continued to raise questionsabout the definition of “habitual residence” in Macau.
Au Kam San claimed that the government is trying, through the new immigration law, to amend several rulings by the Court of Final Appeal (TUI) on the matter.
In the reply, Wong refuted the idea that the government is trying to reverse any decision of TUI.
“We are not correcting any judicial decision from TUI. We do not want to touch on the definition of habitual residence. This is to clarify the concept of residence taking into account the real situation of Macau and while fulfilling all the principles,” Wong said, adding, that the Civil Code already has a clear definition of habitual residence.
Responding to other questions on the matter, the Secretary also clarified that this new law does not apply to foreign students and non-resident workers, adding that these are “excluded from this matter as this only applies to those that have an authorization of permanence in Macau [i.e. a local identification card].”
“We are not trying to introduce new policies. What we are trying to do is just to clarify the definition in this new [law] and not excluding by default all those that do not stay overnight in Macau but might have a justification for that,” he remarked.
The explanations did not convince the democrats, who requested a separate vote on the Article. This did not impede the approval of the new law.