Rant against the West | ‘Inflammatory comments create rebel spirits’ says Neto Valente

The president of the Macau Lawyers Association (AAM), Jorge Neto Valente, takes issue with the comments made by Gu Xinhua, a professor at the University of Macau’s Faculty of Business Administration, who delivered an inflammatory “rant against the west” last week. The comments were made during a speech at the Annual Conference of Macao Studies.

“When I see a teacher of the University of Macau saying that in Macau the system works better because it doesn’t have as many ‘white people’ as in Hong Kong, I seriously question myself if this person has enough qualities to be a teacher of anything?” remarked Neto Valente. “I never had any teacher, either primary school or secondary school, music or sports that could say such brutality.”

In the AAM president’s opinion, “what is dangerous is that this person isn’t here alone, these are the people that want to impose the patriotic values, and impose the ‘love to Macau’, among others.”

“They think they have the monopoly over patriotic and China-related virtues. These are the dangerous ones because they aim to create a rebel spirit in the people that hear them.”

Noting that Gu is entitled to express himself, Neto Valente added, “people that have different mindsets and values to the ones in Macau have the right to express themselves, they just don’t have the right to make such comments.”

Questioned also by the media on whether or not the AAM would consider taking any actions regarding the comments, Neto Valente said, “I don’t think [such comments] deserve any kind of reply except to completely disregard them.”

Following the story uncovered by the Times last Wednesday, Hoje Macau newspaper contacted lawyer Pedro Leal, who said that Gu’s speech did not fit under any criminal offense.

“I don’t think such statements are sufficient rationale for a crime. It’s a silly opinion from a person, which deserves to be criticized [for its content] but I don’t think it can be considered a crime,” said Leal.

After repeated attempts since early last week, the Times is still looking for an official statement from the University of Macau on whether the views of Gu reflect the university’s stance on such matters. The UM has not yet provided any comment on the case.