‘New Hope’ with low expectations for elections

Pereira Coutinho (center)

The list “Nova Esperança” (“New Hope”) headed by the lawmaker and candidate José Pereira Coutinho officially formalized its candidacy to the Legislative Assembly (AL) Elections yesterday.

Pereira Coutinho, who has again been chosen ahead of another current lawmaker Leong Veng Chai as number two, said he has low expectations for this year’s election turnout. “It will be difficult even to elect one [lawmaker],” Coutinho said, saying that the high number of lists presented to contest the seats will make that task even harder due to the distribution of votes among the many lists.

Still, he says that whatever the results, he will be happy with them and a sense of accomplished duty “after a cycle of 12 years as lawmaker.”

Contributing to the difficulties to elect more list members, he also claimed there was a recent episode of interference from China’s Liaison Office,  namely a dinner offered by the Liaison Office to the Macanese community. “This lack of fairness is already affecting the run,” he said.

“There is no margin for doubts [that there is interference from Central Government in the AL elections] and this isn’t the first time this has happened. […] In the past, the members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and of the People’s National Assembly at the election season were rounded up to vote in a certain list,” Coutinho mentioned. “I was very sad to realize that [such a dinner] was organized specifically in a way that one of the candidates to the elections could address the community. When the Central Government pays for this, I consider that this is a serious matter because we see the infringement to the principle that elections must be fair.”

Nevertheless, Coutinho does not think that there is a direct “hand” from the Central Government, instead he points the finger to the local representatives from Beijing accusing them of supporting “these kinds of events in exchange for benefits when they leave the chair.”

Remarking on the lack of a true political education in Macau, the candidate referred to the fact that cases like the reported one occur because of a lack of political knowledge and maturity.

“The political maturity of the Portuguese community is different from the Chinese community. We need to be realistic; those who deal with these issues every day and for almost 20 years (since the establishment of the Macau SAR) know how things run,” he commented noting that he had, several times before, called attention to the need for political education in both secondary schools and universities.

Addressing another case of circulating rumors – that people who subscribed to a certain list were being obligated to vote for that same list – he said that a letter from Rita Santos (the list trustee) had already been sent to the Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election (CAEAL).

“This shows that the level of maturity of some social sectors is still a bit tawdry. And our letter comes in the way to push the CAEAL to do more in the field of informing the population that the vote is free and secret,” he remarked. He added, “free dinners will continue, the same way that the free airfares will continue to bring in the [Macau] students from Taiwan to vote on the Election Day and the supermarket vouchers, all this makes  these elections unfair.”

On the other hand, Coutinho expressed happiness for the ease with which the list was able to gather the necessary subscriptions to run a list for the elections, saying; “We are happy because it wasn’t difficult to find 500 signatures to propose the list application… but [we are] aware of the responsibility that is to continue to perform the full-time duties of being a lawmaker at the Legislative Assembly.”

On the matter, Coutinho remarked, “One of the harder steps was in fact to enter these facilities [of the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP)]” where the office from the CAEAL is located. The candidate is moving with the help of a wheelchair after a surgery to one of his knees, remarking, “the fact that I’m in this situation now made me see how difficult it is for people with handicaps to move around the city and even access public services.”

Younger generation’s concerns to be addressed in political platform

At the official formalization of its candidacy to the Legislative Assembly (AL) Elections yesterday afternoon, the leader of “New Hope” addressed some of the main topics that will be present on his political program.

“Youngsters have a great difficulty in accessing a position of lawmaker in Macau because there isn’t a ‘springboard’ (like there is in Hong Kong regarding the communitarian and neighborhood work) that allows people to have a direct contact with the population and their daily problems,” Pereira Coutinho said. “[Doing] this work also contributes to their experience and knowledge that will allow them to perform better when reaching the assembly.”

Another of the concerns he expressed stemmed from the work he has done with Leong Veng Chai at the AL defending many causes, such as the “defense of the Portuguese language that has been badly taken care of inside the public services.” He noted that he cannot understand why the Secretaries in charge of the education affairs have not noted before now that there would be a lack of translators and interpreters.

“Now, after 17 years of the establishment of the MSAR, the Chief Executive has arrived at the conclusion that there are 200 interpreters/translators missing,” Coutinho said. He noted that it is necessary to address daily problems that are not solved by “puffed up” speeches on celebratory days.

He also notes that in the public services, there are a few Portuguese staff and that most of the times they are not put in duties where they could be valuable but treated like “decorative items.”

He said that another serious matter that specifically affects the Macanese and Portuguese communities is the lack of jobs available to such communities that are targeted with several forms of discrimination.

“In the public services, when they see that the name is in Portuguese, they put [the candidate] immediately to the side, nevertheless many of these people learned Chinese. There is a discrimination problem,” he said claiming that there is a need in the Office to specifically address these problems and their resemblance to existing problems in Hong Kong.

The issues on the incapacity to acquire a house and the high rentals were also mentioned.

Regarding the AL, Coutinho said that changes are needed. “It needs to open its doors, namely of the six committees, to be more transparent and we are going to continue to campaign for that. […] This is a problem that comes directly from us [lawmakers]. We can’t ask transparency from the government and at the same time continue being opaque to the outside.”