Yesterday incumbent lawmaker José Pereira Coutinho delivered the New Hope (Nova Esperança) candidates list and political platform to the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL).
According to the head of the list, New Hope presented a political platform that promises continuity, following the same policies and aims as in previous elections.
In a press briefing after he delivered the documents to the CAEAL, Pereira Coutinho said, “New Hope will keep the same profile that it has maintained over the years and that is based on [the idea] of serving the communities.”
Among the top priorities of the list will be the continued call for more transparency at the Legislative Assembly (AL) by opening the seven committees to the public and the press.
“It’s unacceptable that after over 20 years of MSAR the seven working committees continue working behind closed doors. The citizens have the right to be informed and the media has the duty to inform the citizens. This is why we hope that the Chief Executive and the AL change one of the rules to allow that the citizens and the media can be present [at the committee meetings] except in situations where there are sensitive matters that have to do with the privacy of the people. In these situations, it should evaluate case-by-case if there is a need to close the meeting,” Pereira Coutinho said.
Another of the topics that he nominated as a priority is the urgent regulation of conflicts of interest.
“Lawmakers cannot use their particular or private interests, overlapping the public interest, in matters they are discussing or regulating. We need to create mechanisms in which, due to their individual interests, they should be banned from interfering in the analysis of the bill. This must be a law that has a monitoring system in which a third party informs the lawmaker that he or she cannot take part on a certain matter,” he noted, adding that for this to happen, lawmakers need to clearly and publicly disclose their interests and this information needs to be published on the AL website.
His third priority is the establishment of a regime of responsibility for high-ranked officials.
“We need to have at least [some] political responsibility. Blunders are made at the management level that are harmful to the public purse and nobody is held responsible for that,” Pereira Coutinho concluded.
CE for a day
Eyeing re-election as a lawmaker, Pereira Coutinho expanded yesterday on what he would do if he had the chance to be Chief Executive for a day.
“If I was Chief Executive for one day, I would demolish everything that has to do with the LRT (Light Rapid Transit). The [LRT] ruined the image and physiognomy of Macau. Not only that, it’s […] huge [public] spending,” he remarked, adding that the project has already proven both unfeasible and irrelevant to the public.
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