Severo Portela
It was again that time of happily be the recipients of the Lotus and the other Merit Awards… honoring those individuals, and entities, whose contributions latu sensu to Macau and dedication to community service was found to be sufficiently relevant and deserving to be acknowledged in 2018 by the Chief Executive of the Macau Special Administrative Region. The long list was led by the recipient of the Grand Golden Lotus, Chan Meng Kam, businessman and former lawmaker, followed by former cannonball legislator Fong Chi Keong with the silver rank.
Usually this type of selection and its apparent open merit criteria would be a source of trivial pursuit at least, and perhaps an incentive to a political reading of the list of who is who, and who has been over the last year in the MSAR. However we find the solemnity of the Lotus Awards too mundane to qualify as a political fact deserving a look.
If we were to point to a true political fact, and one driven by a combination of factors, we would chose the statements albeit in the context of an alleged courtesy call to former CE Edmundo Ho made by the new strong man at the Liaison Office Fu Ziying.
Fu Ziying, before coming to MSAR, was deputy minister of Commerce, a vice-ministerial level position. Fu was also a Trade Representative, and in 2015 was appointed head of the Discipline Inspection Unit in the publicity department of the CCP’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection; a political heavyweight indeed.
What made us attentive to Fu Ziying’s circumstantial commentary on the importance of the role played by the first CE, now a vice-president of the Chinese People´s Political Consultative Conference, was that he overcame the usual economic savvy (gaming liberalization) and the decisive building up of the platform of Portuguese Speaking Countries, to praise Ho Hau Wah politically (“rassemblement” of patriotic sectors and trends) and the more grassroots or conservative youth formation. In short, Ho Hau Wah is the one to listen to about Macau…bad news for those who hastily tried to rebuke or refute his political role.
As we hinted above there is much more beyond Decorations, Medals and Certificates of Merit.
The New Macau Association is working again on antics to let establishment sectors make a living on their existence speaking to themselves. Instead of political food, NMA is serving a diet of contradictions and well-behaved irony: they handed a petition to the Legislative Assembly urging lawmakers to investigate the government´s delay in putting to bed the land concession known as Ocean World.
The notorious plot was leased in 1997 and its utilization expired in 2001; in 2016, allegedly, a review was made on recovering unutilized land. The New Macau Democrats statement is an example of the type under of the likes of, “It has been 17 years. There was an unreasonable situation in the recovery procedure”. We say that 17 years as an understatement is a pun to preposterous claims!
Finally, to salute the new year and to clear any hindrances to 2019, we have a couple of notes on issues actually preoccupying Macau people. Lawmakers at the Legislative Assembly, rather, some legislators, refused to take a leap of faith regarding the Cybersecurity law. They demanded that the government had to write clear articles on the promise to not intercept communication.
It is hard to believe such a thing, and allow us to call it in the way it was grounded, on a promise. Promise to only monitor network traffic…never monitor or save communication content.
It will be a promising year, so also to the outgoing Chief Executive Chui Sai On. He will have his moment when in the second half of the year Taipa’s section of the Light Rapid Transit opens for transportation.
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