Teaching at UM could be incompatible with being lawmaker

The new legislature is set to begin today with several new faces at the Legislative Assembly, including scholars at the University of Macau (UM).

The fact that some of those scholars intend to continue teaching at the public university while being lawmakers is raising doubts among legal experts contacted by the Times. While some say that the practice could be illegal due to the Electoral Law system of incompatibilities and other legal diplomas, others see no illegality in it.

The professors turned lawmakers who will start their tender at the AL today include the directly elected Agnes Lam, acting director of the Center for Macau Studies of the Department of Communication, according to the UM website.

Chief Executive Chui Sai On appointed three professors from the UM – Davis Fong (Associate Professor in International Resort Management and Director of the Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming), Iau Ten Pio (Assistant Dean of Faculty of Law and Coordinator of the Bachelor of Law in Chinese Language Program) and Lao Chi Ngai (Research Manager of the Centre for Macau Studies).

According to the system of incompatibilities, lawmakers cannot simultaneously be “workers of the public administration of the Macau Special Administrative Region, individuals appointed by the chief executive to full-time jobs in public institutions, including autonomous funds and services […] and to societies where the MSAR is a shareholder.”

Questioned by the Times, António Katchi, legal expert and lecturer at the Macau Polytechnic Institute, says that when the system of incompatibilities references workers of the MSAR’s public administration, the definition could include UM scholars.

Katchi, however, points out that there are more “restrictive” interpretations of this term. Workers hired through an individual work contract, such as the UM staff, may not be included.

However, he admitted that on analysis of the Statue of the Workers of the Public Administration and the AL Electoral Law, there is little reason for UM staff to be exempted – the Electoral Law clearly states that the appointment as lawmaker ceases “any type of contract” by public administration workers.

Katchi therefore reasons that the term “workers of the public administration,” used in the context of the Electoral Law, includes workers hired through an individual work contract. Otherwise, while some workers of the public administration would lose their labor attachment upon becoming lawmakers, the ones with individual contracts “would not only not lose it – becoming placed in an advantageous position – but they could still accumulate their original work with their work as lawmakers.”

“This favoritism of the workers with individual contracts could be considered a privilege, breaching the principle of equality,” Katchi says, adding that there is “injustice” in cases where a lawmaker loses his previous job because of the provisions of the incompatibilities system. “I think that the employer should be obliged by law to keep the employment link.”

The Times also contacted another legal expert who wished to remain anonymous but  tended to agree with the view that the UM scholars cannot simultaneously be lawmakers.

The expert said that a case that would raise more doubts is when the UM scholars in question are simultaneously heads of department.

However, lawyer Sérgio de Almeida Correia sees no incompatibility in this practice, nor does the local administration. In the previous legislature, lawmaker Gabriel Tong became the dean of the UM’s Faculty of Law in 2015.

“In any country in the world, this problem does not occur. Similarly, it is also normal that the only work that can be performed by magistrates is teaching work and there is usually no doubt regarding their independence and impartiality regarding their juridical work,” Sérgio de Almeida Correia says.

“We can admit that the subordination of the UM to the CE [who is the University of Macau chancellor] can take away some of the autonomy they should have. Besides, the interference of the executive power in the UM is great and there are talks of pressure targeting scholars, in most cases secretively, even to pick research themes and titles to organize conferences and talks.”

However, Sérgio de Almeida Correia says that given the small size of the MSAR, “there are not many qualified persons” to be lawmakers. In the case of the appointed lawmakers, he adds, “their independence would always be at stake given they way they are picked.”

“Personally, I don’t see any problem in the simultaneous exercise of the roles of scholar and lawmaker, be he appointed or not. I don’t see any incompatibility. However, a good or bad performance will depend on the way he [the lawmaker] fulfills his term and in the distance kept in relation to who appoints him.”

The lawyer also mentions the Teachers Statute, article 13 of which admits that a teacher can breach the exclusivity of his contract to enroll in activities of recognized public interest.

“I think the role of lawmaker can be included [in this category], which would solve any incompatibility issue.”