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Macau: An unpopular Chief Executive coming to town

Categories: East Asia, China, Macau (China), Elections, Freedom of Speech, Governance, Politics

Yesterday Fernando Chui Sai On, Macau's former secretary for social and cultural affairs, announced that he had obtained 286 nominations from the territory's 300-member election committee which implies that he will automatically become the next chief executive of Macau.

Different from Hong Kong, Macau has been a very apolitical city and its citizens are not very critical of the government even though they are aware of the corruption among top ranked government officials. The most notorious case is the Ao Man Long's billion dollars corruption scandal. However, this time some citizens have decided to speak up and self-organize against Fernando Chui.

In a major forum in Macau, cyberctm, a poll (dated June 17) shows that around 80% netizens have voted against Fernando Chui for being the next chief executive. Here are some of the comments explaining why:

LST0011 (2009-5-12)

無用架!你老豆有無水呀?你老豆有無佢老豆咁有面呀?你有無佢咁無齒呀?你有無佢咁中意帶住屋企人去行街同做人呀? 無呀嘛,咁咪抵佢做咯…就係咁簡單!

This is meaningless. Is your father wealthy? If so is your father as well-connected as his (Fernando)? And are you as shameless as him? Do you enjoy taking your family trademark wherever you go? I don't think anyone can do that but him… this is all too simple.

2014 (2009-5-12)

應該係研究某人係唔係要坐牢, 而非係唔係做特首

We should study whether that person should go to jail rather than be the Chief Executive.

亞嬸 (2009-5-13)

上世紀勁大貪官和珅係皇帝面前都係一隻討皇帝歡心的狗奴才…..只有狗奴才先會懂得主子的喜惡……..競選澳門的特狗的致勝之道—首要都係要取得亞爺歡心…

In last century (Ching Dynasty), the most corrupted government official is He Xin and he was a dog to the emperor. Only a dog can tell what its master like. The road to success in the CE election is to please the grand father (Beijing).

icezero1001 (2009-5-14)

明知自己冇民望都出來參選,睇來佢背後勢力都幾大

Knowing that he doesn't have public support and he still dares to be a candidate. He has really strong back up.

ohmybuddy (2009-5-15)

反對貪官奸商做特首!!澳門前途一片黑暗!!!

Against corrupted businessman to become CE!!! The future of Macau would be darken!!!

愛瞞停轉日 (2009-6-11)

中央已放棄澳門

The central government has given up on Macau.

A majority of the netizens who voted against Fernando Chui believed that he is another corrupted businessman who had given and will continue to give favor to his family business with his political power. For example, this forum post (zh) pointed out that he had given a health reform consultant contract to his own circle.

Moreover, when he acted as the secretary for social and cultural affairs, he was responsible for the East Asian Game, and it turned out that the government had exceed the budget for more than 2 billions. The following youtube video challenges Fernando Chui's integrity and ability to be Macau's CE:

The video also pointed out that as the secretary for social and cultural affair, he approved the construction of Macau-China Liaison Office building which destroyed Macau's historical and cultural heritage.

Last month (around mid May), some citizens wanted to publish an advertisement in major newspapers to voice out against Chui but their bank account was suspended by the Macau Commercial Bank. Mainstream media had censored away all the negative public opinions and Internet forum becomes the only channel for the public to discuss the CE election.

In spite of all the public discontent, Chui gained more than 90% vote in the small circle CE election committee. It is likely that the latent political tension within the community will probably increase in coming years.