The Macau Righteousness candidacy list, No.10 on the ballot paper for the upcoming direct legislative election, calls for everybody to be able to have a job, own a home, and retire comfortably.
The Macau Righteousness list is running in the direct election for the second time after failing in its bid for a seat in the legislature’s hemicycle four years ago, when it merely got 393 votes.
In the 2017 direct election, around 9,000 votes were enough for a candidacy list to win one seat. Macau’s legislative elections are held in line with the proportional representation system.
The candidacy list is named Ou Mun Kong I in Portuguese, the Cantonese transliteration of its Chinese name, 澳門公義, which, directly translated, means Macau Righteousness.
In the run-up to the election, the first two candidates of the list, Lee Sio Kuan and Kuong Kai Nang, were disqualified by the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL) in early July for failing to uphold the Macau Basic Law or having been disloyal to the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR). However, the commission accepted the list per se as it still had the officially required minimum of four candidates after Lee and Kuong were disqualified. Both are veteran labour rights activists.
Lee headed the Macau Righteousness list four years ago, when it first ran in the direct election. However, Lee first ran in the direct election in 2013, when he headed a candidacy list called Supervision by the Grassroots, which failed to win a seat as it only got 368 votes.
The Macau Righteousness list now only has three candidates after one candidate withdrew from the election last month, which occurred after the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission had published the final list of accepted candidates early last month. The commission pointed out last month that after its publication of the final list, a candidacy list can continue to run in the direct election even after having less than four candidates due to one or more candidates’ withdrawal from the election.
Consequently, the list is now headed by Ma Kuok Choi, 63, who works in the restaurant sector.
Despite having been disqualified, it is still Lee (the list’s trustee) who is heading the list’s campaign activities, such as talking to the media, not the list’s first-ranked candidate.
The candidacy list pledges to fight for the grassroots’ benefits. Its campaign platform calls for a 10-percent increase in Macau’s gaming tax rate – which currently stands at 35 percent, which the list says would enable the government to ensure that every local resident has their own home. The platform also calls for every four-member family to be able to own a 1,000-square-foot home (92.9 square metres).
The list says that the proposed 10-percent rise in the gaming tax rate could also support the setting-up of a retirement scheme “for all residents”, urging the government to allocate 10 to 15 percent of its annual gaming tax revenues for the retirement scheme so that everybody who has retired could receive a monthly pension the amount of which would equal his or her monthly salary they receive on retiring.
The platform calls for an additional cash handout of 10,000 patacas for this year due to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The platform urges the local government to discuss possible measures with the mainland authorities to encourage more compatriots to visit Macau, with the aim of boosting the local economy.
Since his disqualification from the race, Lee has repeatedly insisted that he has always loved his country and Macau and upheld the Macau Basic Law. Lee said that he expressed his strong support when the Macau government proposed local legislation on safeguarding national security in 2008 and 2009, and was asking for residents’ donations for the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. He has accused the election watchdog of having wrongly disqualified him, claiming that even the commission’s president “is less patriotic” than him.
The number-one and number-two candidates of the Macau Righteousness direct-election list, Ma Kuok Choi (right) and Leong Sio Hong (left), and Lee Sio Kuan (second from right) and Kuong Kai Nang, the list’s initial first two candidates who were disqualified by the government’s election watchdog in July, pose at Praça do Tap Seac shortly after the start of the election campaign at 00:00 on August 28. Lee is the list’s trustee. Photo: MPDG
