Macau | Law proposals too numerous for short Legislative Assembly discussion period – Legislator

Macau (MNA) – Legislator José Pereira Coutinho has criticised the large number of bill proposals submitted to the Legislative Assembly (AL) for debate in the first day of the restart of the plenary on Monday.

Seven bill proposals were submitted for debate today with legislator Coutinho stating that legislators were only informed on October 8 and criticising the short period of time provided to evaluate the legislative proposals.

“Many of them are very complex and concern fundamental rights protected by the Basic Law such as the Law of Light Rail Train (LRT), for the Public Security Police Force (CPSp) and the Cybersecurity Law […] How can legislators in an honest and responsible half-hour express themselves in a plenary session on seven extremely complex proposals?” the legislator stated.

Legislator Coutinho considered this was one of the examples of why local residents saw the AL and “increasingly inefficient” in monitoring the government and “highly instrumentalised” by authorities.

“Legislators are evaluated not by the the quantity of work carried out, but
mainly due to the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the work,” he added.

The directly elected legislator also stated that residents “pay dearly” for these “defects” in the AL with “successive abuses with the expense of the public treasury” and through “despotism, and the serious deficit of government transparency and the lack of responsibility of some holders of the main posts, some of them exercising the
positions in perpetuity”.