Zhang Rongshun, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), said in Macau yesterday that the board members of Macau’s non-political municipal organisation cannot be elected by popular vote.
Zhang made the remarks during a seminar jointly organised by the Macau Legal Workers Association and Macau Basic Law Promotion Association. The seminar, about the establishment of a non-political municipal organisation in Macau, was held yesterday at Federal Restaurant in Zape.
The government launched a one-month public consultation late last month on the establishment of a non-political municipal organisation in Macau. The government aims to establish the municipal organisation in early 2019.
The government is proposing that the board members of the municipal organisation are appointed by the chief executive.
Article 95 of the Macau Basic Law states that “municipal organisations which are not organs of political power may be established in the Macau Special Administrative Region. Entrusted by the government of the region, they shall provide services in fields such as culture, recreation and environmental sanitation, and shall be consulted by the government of the region on the above mentioned affairs.” Article 96 states that “the functions, powers and structure of the municipal organisations shall be prescribed by law.”
The Macau Basic Law, which was passed by the National People’s Congress (NPC) in March 1993, took effect on December 20, 1999.
The public consultation document points out that when Macau was under Portuguese administration, municipal organs and the public administration headed by the city’s governor appointed by Portugal constituted, to a certain degree, two levels of governance, based on the Portuguese principle of local autonomy.
At that time the city’s two municipal organs each had an elected representative body, the consultation document points out.
The document underlines that the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) – under the “one country, two systems” principle – only has one level of government – the MSAR government.
The document says that a municipal organisation to be established in line with the Macau Basic Law is merely an entity entrusted by the government with providing municipal services and advising the government on the services. The document says that, consequently, the municipal organisation does not have the nature of “a second-level local government” and neither can it be based on the Portuguese principle of local autonomy, adding that, therefore, the post-1999 municipal organisation should not have an elected representative body.
The document proposes that the municipal organisation will have an administrative committee and a consultative committee. The document also proposes that all members of the two committees will be appointed by the chief executive.
Since the public consultation on the matter has been launched, several lawmakers have called for the members of the municipal organisation’s consultative committee to be elected.
Zhang said yesterday that if the board members of the municipal organisation were to be elected, it would mean that, by definition, it would be a municipal council. Zhang went on to say that if the municipal organisation were to consist of a municipal council and an administrative entity, it would mean that the municipal organisation would be based on the Portuguese principle of local autonomy.
Zhang said that the Macau Basic Law rules out the model of municipal autonomy as during Macau’s then Portuguese administration, adding that otherwise the establishment of the municipal organisation with an elected body would override Macau’s high degree of autonomy authorised by the central government.
Zhang insisted that Hong Kong’s District Council and the Macau future municipal organisation are not comparable, as the former is only a consultative entity that does not provide municipal services.
Zhang Rongshun, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), speaks during yesterday’s seminar about the establishment of Macau’s non-political municipal organisation, at Federal Restaurant in Zape. Photo: MPDG
