Rear Window | TUI cum laude

Severo Portela

The ruling that the MSAR’s Court of Final Appeal (TUI) made on the negative answer that the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau gave the Open Society in response to their request to occupy a public space to promote the so-called civil referendum on the development of the electoral system, deserves high marks on the legal-technical arguments behind the decision, and even higher marks on social-political relevance.
Regarding the legal technicalities on which judge Song Man Lei and her peers based the conclusion that TUI does not have jurisdiction to rule on Jason Chao’s legal claim, we agree with the legal experts’ overall positive evaluation. It is good to know that Macau has good judges in the Court of Final Appeal.
Now however, we also know that the MSAR has wise judges in TUI. Dismissing the Open Society who were filing on the basis that the promotional activities IACM forbade could not be considered an assembly, the Court of Final Appeal avoided the burden to eventually rule the so-called civil referendum illegal. Despite the fact that the non-decision on the unofficial poll could provide the petitioners logical ground to claim the referendum legal, Jason Chao did not waste the chance to do so.
Ruling indirectly on the issue, TUI succeeded both in reaffirming judicial independence and civil liberties in the MSAR and rejecting the ongoing abuse of the concept of rule of law. Following the political lead voiced through an NPC source, the Liaison Office and the Macau Government, scholars like Macau Polytechnic associate professor Wang Yu and Wuhan University professor Leng Tie Xun have tried to carry legal substance into a political evaluation. They are trying, but not exactly succeeding.
Apparently, the above mentioned scholars did nothing more than carry a few more qualifying adjectives to the illegal and invalid referendum, like “hypocritical”, “phony” and “void”, as well as some creative mixed arguments usually seen in political spin. Meaning no disrespect… one of the best lines from the notorious Information Minister, Saeed al-Sahaf comes to mind: “Lying is forbidden in Iraq.”
Finally, echoing the zeitgeist, some MSAR establishment public personalities did dare to demonstrate a lack of comprehension of what the second system is and what its rule of law entails.
As for the New Macau Democrats, they now know the civil dress code: if they are about to raise the question of an unofficial referendum deemed as NOT LEGAL they should resort to more complex tools like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and in doing so prove right those who accused NMD of being in collusion with Occupy Central and outside forces. But it is a game out of their league.
Meanwhile, the solo-runner for the post of MSAR Chief Executive is running smoothly to a second term.
Chui Sai On is quietly addressing – or at least trying to – some of the social and economic issues heating up civil society (public housing, income imbalance) and still has room to watch candidates of his own government and his own government secretaries go by at a non-stop pace.
Macau Polytechnic Institute professor Sunny Chan thinks Administration and Justice should not be under the same secretary; his colleague Ieong Wan Chong disagrees and does not want the government to swell. Macau Civil Servants Association (ATFPM) urges CE to select “competent” secretaries; former ATFPM president, Jorge Fão, knows best and calls for a change in the government/administration top tiers.
But the award of innovation has to go to Pereira Coutinho. New Hope Legislator would like Chui Sai On to operate a small revolution: transfer the Tourism Bureau to Economy and Finance Affairs, and, believe it or not, reunite Justice, Security and Administration in the same office. Does Coutinho know of a Super-Secretary? If we had to bet on somebody, the head of the Comission against Corruption, Vasco Fong, would qualify… unequivocally.