Kapok: Too many ways to be No. 1

Being in the news for allegations of vote-buying during election time is never a great thing in terms of image, to say the least. This is even worse when it concerns the leading contender—being a tainted number one will always make you look like a loser—and then it can turn into a disaster when what is alleged eventually becomes proven and established beyond reasonable doubt. This is partly the situation of the not-for-profit group Aliança do Povo de Instituição de Macau (API), or 民眾建澳聯盟 in Chinese, which I would translate into English as the Alliance of the People for the Strengthening of Macau—the flagship organization of legislator and executive council member Chan Meng Kam. However, the condemnation of two members of the association for vote-buying during the 2013 elections has unraveled almost two years after the casting of the vote. The association today, in effect, is distinct from the list that was then led by the strongman of the Fujianese community, the Association of the United Citizens of Macao, although the logos are pretty similar—the people 民 is made of people 人人人!
Beyond the debate about the nature of the allegations (buying meals and transporting supporters to voting booths), the way the proof was obtained (a CCAC agent going undercover and interviews being conducted in a suggestive manner) and the condemnation proper (targeting two elderly supporters and being supposedly politically motivated on the part of the government), one can easily understand why the secretary for Administration and Justice, Sonia Chan, would promise to amend the electoral law before the end of the next legislative session, in the wake of the tumult: irresponsibility and lack of accountability appear to prevail because of the time lapse and confusing identities, and actually weaken the one and only institution in the whole institutional design of our SAR that demonstrates a slight democratic component.
While Song Pek Kei, the third member of Chan Meng Kam’s winning list in 2013 and vice president of the API, has started to voice her discontent at the judgment made public on Friday—that the API is appealing—along with the very vocal Chan Tak Seng, the API director who organized a very combative press conference on Tuesday, several media outlets have highlighted the contrasting fact that Mr Chan Meng Kam and his number two, Si Ka Lon, are nowhere to be seen. Coming in as the fourth-best funded association in the first quarter of 2015 by the Macau Foundation after the Federation of Trade Unions, the General Union of Neighborhood and the General Association of Women, there is no doubt that the API has all the characteristics of a quasi-political party at the service of Mr Chan Meng Kam, who is the honorary president, whereas Si Ka Lon serves as its current president.
Looking at the statutes of the association, which was only established in March 2008, one can read that the raison d’être of the whole group is not only to foster the love of the motherland and Macau, to serve the “one country two systems” principle as well as to ensure that the “people of Macao govern Macao” according to “a high degree of autonomy”, but also to provide social and welfare services. The statutes further indicate that beyond the full support it ensures to the Macau SAR government when it comes to law, economic development, people’s livelihood, the promotion of democracy (sic!) and the advancement of unity, long-term prosperity and stability, API should also explore and initiate new perspectives!
The good news is that people care. Despite the delay, the citizenry is paying attention by eagerly following the twists and turns of the affair via the press. The judicial system, the government at large and even the perpetrators—contesting is being attentive—are in full battle mode. In a banana republic, nobody cares, but even in a very truncated democracy, an increasingly vibrant civil society, supported by more sophisticated citizens, is remarkably looking for greater meaning and ultimately vaster purpose. The government cannot fail to respond to that call.

Published in Macau Daily Times, July 24th 2015

Kapok: The Fongchikeongisation of the minds

Honestly speaking, I never expected some of my friends – many of them educated – to fall victim to arguments that only the most cynical and unrefined individuals would dare to use. But here we are, the amended version of the law on the control and prevention of smoking that is paving the way for a long-overdue full ban in public places appears to be able to bring the worst out of even the best, and the very little confidence one might have in people’s rationality can easily go up in smoke!
The most obvious arguments as to why, as a community, we should embrace a full ban on smoking in public have been stated by many, including myself (MDT, May 15th) and these are grounded in independent scientific arguments, both regarding healthcare and the impact on the most exposed business operations, and take into account global trends, including the ones that have affected China in the recent past. The key words here are “independent” and “global”.
When directly elected legislator Zheng Anting, who is a prominent figure in the Macao Jiangmen Communal Society, the one and only association that organized a counter-demonstration in May 2014 to support the Perks’ Bill, openly accompanies gaming promoters to meet with the secretaries in order to question the soundness of the full ban, he is acting as a lobbyist. When the same Mr Zheng quotes the survey done by one of the associations of junkets as well as a study commissioned by gaming operators in order to contest, supposedly scientifically, the arguments of the government in favor of the bill during a plenary meeting of the Legislative Assembly, he at best looks cynical, and for some, like a fool. Even if his intention is noble – I am giving him a lot of credit – in considering the adverse effect the bill could hypothetically have on employment in Macao, how can he sensibly expect to win the argument with such a lack of independence?
In a business environment, it seems perfectly legitimate for gaming operators to lobby the government, at every level and using whatever legal means, against a measure they perceive to be contrary to their interests, but Mr Zheng is not on their payroll; he is a directly elected member of the Assembly embodying the sovereignty of the people. And youth and limited experience are no excuse, as Mr Fong Chi Keong aptly reminds us.
Mr Fong has been a well-known and colorful figure in the Assembly for almost a quarter of a century. On the one hand, he is a true man of the people with a capacity to empathize with the many – I remember seeing him doing his own grocery shopping and talking to everybody in the Red Market, and that was not for show. On the other hand, his many outbursts and unfortunate, often gross, comments regarding many issues, including domestic violence and, most recently, healthcare have made the roster of Chief Executive-appointed legislators look really bad, if not completely irrelevant. By bringing in the arguments of “discrimination” against the poor, the infringement of human rights regarding a preposterous “right to smoke” and the colloquial portrait of Chinese people who “speak, smoke and drink,” Mr Fong appears to be calling for his own demise. The real discrimination is when people cannot afford to pay for expensive healthcare services for treatment for lung cancer or strokes. The real infringement is the government not considering the protection of the citizens – including the victims of second-hand smoking, meaning the vast majority – as its priority. And being Chinese today obviously goes way beyond a very outdated conception of culture that negates the capacity, if not the necessity, to change and adapt. Becoming “a world center for tourism and leisure” implies a few requirements!
Ultimately the question is not really whether there are better measures to prevent people from inhaling nefarious puffs today but rather removing, at long last, an exception in the law that should have never been inserted back in 2011 and strengthening measures that will imbue the government’s public policies with greater consistency.

Published in Macau Daily Times, July 10th 2015