Neto Valente deems Portuguese people irrelevant in local politics

According to Jorge Neto Valente, the president of the Macau Lawyers Association (AAM), the Portuguese people in Macau have become increasingly irrelevant in terms of local politics. Neto Valente made this claim in an interview with Portuguese news agency Lusa.

Neto Valente also noted in the interview that the 20 years following Macau’s handover had seen a significant erosion of participation in local politics by the Portuguese people as the “Chinese community occupy all the power positions.”

“Nowadays, the Portuguese [referring to those born in Portugal] are almost irrelevant in terms of local politics,” he said.

According to Neto Valente, some advisory and consultancy positions are reserved for the Portuguese, as well as some business-related positions, but these roles are all removed from policy-making or political positions.

To evidence his claim, he noted that he is the only person born in Portugal left as part of the Electoral College for the new Chief Executive (CE) election, which is due to be held on August 25.

Regarding these higher positions, Neto Valente has a pragmatic view on the topic, saying “it’s China that appoints and we must learn how to live with it. It is useless to make a lot of noise about this system of choosing the CE because this system is the one that will prevail.” RM

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