Rear Window | Vexing Issues

Severo Portela

1 – Here we go again with the four-yearly procedure to select, by universal suffrage, a 14-seat section of the 33-strong floor of the Legislative Assembly at the Nam Van Lakes! Despite being a momentous occasion in the executive-led Macau Special Administrative Region political calendar, both its established routine and swampy non-evolving character gives the September 17 elections the atmosphere of “Here we go again to another day at the races.” Or rather, we do prefer the translation of the sage local lingo: same, same, but different!

This is why, once again, we have more or less the same candidates, waging more or less the same political agendas. First: as to the running tickets, the difference is in the undertone brought about by the arbitrary increase in the number of confirmed nomination committees for the direct election process of the 2017 Legislative Assembly Election from 20 to 25. A frivolous and uninformed electoral reading would brag about progress in the SAR’s democratic development, even though the increase in the number of lists will increase the “price” of each seat. Secondly the failure to present political agendas comes with a “more” and a “less”: more constraints and conditions in the CAEAL Electoral Law and less ability to confront and maneuver around that uninspired regulatory nonsense.

However, this situation does not bear the weight of a cliché as degraded as a history that repeats itself – first as a tragedy, second as a farce – since the situation does not qualify as social drama or even farcical play. The MSAR is no longer living a political game of moving forward or back, winning and losing in a well-defined constitutional landscape. Now it is pure ideology.

One has to wonder how high the spirits among young democrats will be in the New Macau Association to confront the reality of political disenfranchisement, with Scott Chiang having been refused entry to Hong Kong, and the electoral threat posed by those merely trying to hijack NMA votes. Veteran democrats Ng and Au have already reacted through a non-confrontational statement of wishful thinking: they hope that one day the system will evolve to a gentler democratic platform. New Hope once again is facing a similar threat to the one poisoning NMA’s chances to survive in an increasingly unfavorable zeitgest. But veteran pro-labor Pereira Coutinho is resilient and always manages to expand his constituency in order to replace the wandering vote.

Here we go again, wondering how conservatives will split the vote, betting on the private war of the regional tickets, and not betting on the gaming-related candidates. They are probably betting on their way out of the AL.

2 -The above-mentioned intrusion of ideology in the political discourse as defined in the Basic Law does not mean we have to fear it will circumscribe itself to the political dynamics. It will tend or try to contaminate legislative and judicial foundations. To illustrate or illuminate this trap we may consider the irreversible godforsaken smoking ban in casinos and the draft to be tabled this week.

3 – Finally, one word about Liu Xiaobo, aka Black Horse, currently ailing with untreated late-stage liver-cancer, and the alleged leniency with which authorities handled the discovery that Bo Xilai, who was also jailed, had cancer. Bo was allegedly free to undertake life-saving treatment. White Horse?