The Power of Political Thought (PPP) candidacy list (思政動力), No.12 on the ballot paper for Sunday’s direct Legislative Assembly election, puts special emphasis on public administration reform and the healthy development of Macau’s gaming industry.
The PPP 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 only garnered 672 votes.
In the 2017 direct election, around 9,000 votes were enough for a candidacy list to win one seat.
As four years ago, the list is headed by Nelson Kot Man Kam, 62, a former inspector of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ). Since failing in his election bid four years ago, Kot has appeared more frequently in the media as a current affairs commentator about a range of topics.
Kot currently heads the Macau Comprehensive Social Research Association, a think tank set up in 2007 to study various daily life matters affecting civil society.
The Power of Political Thought list comprises 12 candidates. The list’s number-two candidate is Denise Lei Chao Leng, 50, an administrative staff member at the public University of Macau’s (UM) Faculty of Law. She was the list’s number-three candidate four years ago.
The list’s political platform for the September 12 election comprises nine major aspects, namely public administration reform, the gaming industry, housing, transport, seniors’ welfare, sports facilities, youth development, disaster prevention and mitigation, and healthcare
The list criticised the government for its slow progress in public administration reform. Its platform urges the government to streamline its public administration structure and improve its accountability system for senior officials.
Kot has told reporters that he had decided to try once again to win a seat as the Legislative Assembly (AL) had failed to fully reflect residents’ views.
The platform calls for an “open and transparent” bidding process for the upcoming granting of gaming concessions, and to ensure that the city’s gaming sector won’t have sub-concessions in the future.
The Macau government has pledged that it will solve the “historical issue” of the current gaming concession and sub-concession model – the gaming industry’s so-called “3+3” system.
Macau’s three gaming concessions and three sub-concessions will expire next year.
The platform calls for the government to allocate a certain percentage of gaming operators’ profits every year for the setting-up of a fund and a committee for gaming workers in order to protect their rights and benefits.
The platform urges the government to ensure a stable supply of its public housing units, calling for the government to accept applications for its subsidised home-ownership scheme (HOS) flats all the time.
The platform urges the government to review the Light Rail Transit’s (LRT) effectiveness in improving the city’s traffic situation. The platform also calls for the resumption of a regular ferry link between the Macau peninsula and Taipa, which was cancelled decades ago, as a way to ease the traffic pressure on the city’s three peninsula-Taipa bridges.
The platform urges the government to come up with an official ratio of sports facilities in relation to the city’s total land area.
The number-one candidate of the Power of Political Thought (PPP) direct-election list, Nelson Kot Man Kam (centre), talks with a woman in Largo do Pagode do Bazar (where the Hong Kung Temple is located) in the Inner Harbour area last week, as the number-two candidate Denise Lei Chao Leng looks on. Photo: PPP
