Our Desk | The sudden ‘new vitality’ of Ho

Renato Marques

The former president of the Legislative Assembly (AL) Ho Iat Seng is widely considered the most likely next Chief Executive (CE).

The first to publicly acknowledge that he would be running, after much consideration, Ho seems to have changed his mind over the last couple of months and presented a kind of “new vitality” that I cannot explain.

I say this because about three years ago when he was 59, I had the chance to do a short interview with him on the sidelines of an AL event. In these comments, Ho replied to me words to the effect of “I don’t think to run for any higher position anymore as I am getting too old and close to retirement age.”

Well, that was three years ago, three years in which Ho not only reversed course on this statement, but also seemed to have regained a vitality that makes of him the strongest candidate for the post of the new CE. If the tradition still holds, he would take such post for the two consecutive mandates allowed by law, which means that he would hold the post for the next 10 years.

I am not trying to say that he is too old for such a position, in fact, he is one of the “younger” candidates among the seven that have already publicly revealed an interest in running. But why this sudden change of attitude?

Recently, I remember Ho, in his role as president of the AL, skipping a series of legislative sessions late last year in which important discussions were occurring, including some related to the government’s policy address for this year. At the time the media was told by the AL staff, “the president was sick.”

Of course everyone is entitled to be sick and to recover properly and illness is totally independent of age, but still, for several weeks last year and this year the president missed multiple plenary meetings due to being sick.

An outsider would look at this series of events as though he is almost being forced to run for CE without really wanting to do so. It is almost like someone is pushing Ho against his will. That is where I think we might have a problem as Macau cannot afford to have someone as a CE, who is in the post against his will, for 10, or even five, years.

Some people say that to run for such a position, first you need to have a “passion” for it. The Japanese have a word to define this “reason of being”: “Ikigai.” It is a complex concept that can be translated roughly as “what you live for” or in a more simplistic way, “what pulls you out of bed in the morning.”
According to Japanese beliefs, each person’s “Ikigai” is unique and applies to their lives, values and beliefs by reflecting the inner self of a person, creating a mental state in which the person feels at ease with whatever they are doing.

I am not sure about what Ho’s Ikigai is but I know that the example of his reactions as president of AL such as showing difficulties to manage his anger on several occasions in addition to making some “paternalistic” remarks, namely to lawmaker Sulu Sou. I would say that at the very least, the oft-criticized “too smooth” style of Chui Sai On is about to change.