New Macau’s vice president Sulu Sou
New Macau Association (ANM) is calling for chief executive Chui Sai On to take more accountability for the way the government handled the aftermath of Typhoon Hato, the deadliest typhoon to strike Macau in recorded history.
Following media reports on the weekend that New Macau had called for Chui’s resignation, Kin Long Wong, a spokesperson for the group, informed the Times that they are actually demanding greater accountability, with “resignation being one option.”
The spokesperson said that, as the head of the civil protection services, Chui should take responsibility for the ineffectual government response to the natural disaster.
Chui has admitted that the typhoon preparations were insufficient and the government has pledged to do more in the future to mitigate the impact of extreme weather phenomena.
The Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) has already begun an investigation into the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) and its former chief, Fong Soi Kun, over its typhoon preparations and management strategy.
ANM vice president Sulu Sou is insisting that the CCAC open another investigation into Chui’s accountability for the destructiveness of the typhoon. The group is also holding Chui responsible for the re-appointment of Fong last year after the SMG failed to raise Signal 8 for Typhoon Nida. The bureau argued that the wind speed of Nida was just short of that required for Signal 8. Macau locals had protested the reappointment decision at the time.
Last week, Sou criticized the chief executive for neglecting to take any measure to improve the drainage system and anti-flooding measures in the Inner Harbor area since his tenure began eight years ago.
In 2015, the MSAR government completed a small project to strengthen the Inner Harbor’s short-term flood control system. More comprehensive plans are underway, according to a government statement released over the weekend, and approval in principle has been granted by Beijing for a cross-boundary tidal barrier.
But ANM argues that other measures, including the raising of an emergency alarm, could and should have been used by the Chui once the severity of the natural disaster was understood.
“There is an alarm system for public disasters, in which the CE can declare a state of emergency or other, lesser alarm categories. The mechanism was not used in the disaster,” said Wong, adding that it should have been.
Sou is now thought to be the de facto leader of New Macau. The young candidate-lawmaker tops the New Macau election ticket and is expected to take over as ANM leader once outgoing president Scott Chiang steps down after the September 17 Legislative Assembly election.
The ANM spokesperson would not confirm if Sou will become the group’s next leader, regaedless of hypothetical scenarios in which he is not elected as a lawmaker later this month. “Scott Chiang is still the president of New Macau,” he said, adding that the judgement concerning changes to the ANM leadership “is up to the membership of the association to decide.”
This is not the first time that the association has called for Chui’s resignation.
In this May 15, 2016, file photo, police and demonstrators are seen on the street during the anti-Jinan University donation protest
Last year, New Macau co-organized a demonstration in response to what the group described as the chief executive’s “poor integrity and alleged involvement in corruption,” following the Jinan University donation controversy.
In May 2016, Chui was accused of using his position as Macau’s most senior official to facilitate a RMB100 million donation from the Macau Foundation to the mainland’s Jinan University, to coincide with the education institution’s 110th anniversary. Chui previously served as vice-chairman of Jinan University Council and remains president of the Council of Trustees of the Macau Foundation.
The CCAC released a report the following month concluding that the donation did not breach the law.
Besieged by daily rumors
New Macau Association (ANM) spokesperson Kin Long Wong told the Times yesterday that the group has been besieged by online rumors and allegations since the official election campaign period began. “We face difficulties in the [election] campaign every day,” he said. “Every day, there are inaccurate or false stories about [New Macau] on the internet. Some of them are posted by fake social media accounts […] but there is no clear evidence which group is contributing to this.” Wong said that some of the stories falsely accuse ANM of being a separatist organization, striving for Macau’s independence. Another popular rumor concerns fabricated “love stories” from Sulu Sou’s student years in Taiwan that are based on another individual with the same name, he said.
