Leadership material
He rose, he gambled and he changed the face of Macau forever. Now he is set to disappear from view. As Macau awaits the election of a new chief executive, Closer examines the term in office of Edmund Ho Hau-wah and the upcoming election process.
Nine years, 70 billion patacas in government reserves. He led Macau through the SARS crisis, established the city as the world’s largest gaming destination, battled through public protests and corruption scandals and, occasionally, inspired.
As Macau’s first chief executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah’s second and final term in office comes to an end, the city as its residents once knew it is all but a distance memory. The rapid transformation of Macau under Mr Ho’s leadership has made him a champion in many circles and an enemy in others.
Man on a mission
Assistant Professor at Macau University’s Department of Government and Public Administration, Bill Chou Kwok-ping, said it was crucial to remember in any debate about the chief executive’s performance that he was not always the one pulling the strings. Dr Chou said under the current system of government, Macau and the chief executive, would always be “subservient” to Beijing. “He can do little indeed, given he needs the support of Beijing and major interest groups,” Dr Chou said. “As a result, he has to satisfy the demands of these parties.”
Dr Chou said there was no doubt Mr Ho’s greatest achievement, the liberalisation of the gaming industry, would always be remembered as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, Mr Ho is lauded for attracting an influx of international investment that provided a windfall for the government coffers allowing increased investment in welfare, education and infrastructure. While on the other, he is criticised for the lack of planning, high inflation, increasing cost of housing and impossible traffic congestion.
“Macau is a better place to some people but not to others,” Dr Chou explained. “It is a better place to investors as the business velocity has increased substantially. The investment also provides more job opportunities for young professionals and school leavers. But the middle-aged workers without high qualifications cannot benefit much from the economic prosperity. The income of many of them remains static, or even decreases when inflation rate is taken into account.”
For legislator and vice president of the Federation of Association of Labourers in Macau, Kwan Tsui-hang, it’s a question of balance. Ms Kwan said the chief executive had shown “extraordinary bravery” in opening up the gaming industry, but that the drastic changes in the city had left many people feeling displaced. “Before the handover the government reserve was around 2 billion patacas, this year the reserve is more than 40 billion and by the end of the year it is forecast to be over 70 billion,” Ms Kwan said. “We have free education for students up to senior high school, social welfare has been upgraded, the growth in the gaming industry has been tremendous and we see a lot of visitors coming. On the face of it Macau is very prosperous.”
But dig a little deeper below the surface and Ms Kwan said there was a completely different story to be told. “Those who live in Macau have lost the tranquillity and comfort that we are used to,” she said. “There has been a widening of the gap between the rich and the poor, for the grassroots or baseline people they will not feel happy at all.”
Secretary general of Macau’s largest social welfare organisation Caritas Macau, Paul Pun Chi-meng, said it was obvious the chief executive had tried his best, but he lacked focus. Mr Pun said there were key issues highlighted in Mr Ho’s first term in office that remained outstanding for far too long. “I do not doubt his sincerity in hoping to upgrade the living standard in Macau,” Mr Pun said. “He has tried his best, but he has not been focused and the expectations of the citizens are even higher now.”
Caritas has been actively campaigning for several years for improvements to social housing to ease the burden of skyrocketing property prices, more support for small to medium sized enterprises, increased focus on Macau youths, better facilities for the elderly and improved health care.
Mr Pun said an “extremely positive” outcome of Mr Ho’s term in office was that Macau citizens had a higher sense of “pride and belonging” than before. He said they were also more willing to voice concerns and criticise the government when necessary, which was the mark of a healthy society. “We now have the confidence to do things we had never thought of before,” he said. “In the past Macau was a stepping stone to other places and now I see people coming back, there is opportunity here now. The thing I worry about is the long-term sustainability of it all, it is easy for things to go up and down.”
Lecturer at the School of Arts, Letters and Sciences at Macau Inter-University Institute (IIUM), Martin Chung, agreed Mr Ho had given Macau citizens an unprecedented sense of pride, especially after Hong Kong residents started flocking to the city and praising Mr Ho’s leadership. Mr Chung said the feeling was not just linked to Macau’s economic success, but that it had something to do with the chief executive’s “personal charisma” and his “ability to engage the commoner”.
“I remember vividly how impressed I felt when I heard him speaking over the radio about the controversy of unequal treatment between Hong Kong and Macau citizens when crossing each other’s borders,” Mr Chung recalled. “Without politicalese, self-righteousness
or inferiority, he simply told his people to be pragmatic about it. Period. I was sold on the spot.”
According to Mr Chung that “honesty and courage to tackle controversies head-on” is now gone. He said Mr Ho’s reaction to the May 1 protests last year blaming “plotters” and his lack of response to the Ao Man Long corruption scandal were disheartening. Many commentators have voiced opinions that these incidents led to a rapid downward spiral in Mr Ho’s term in office and that Beijing lost confidence in his leadership. “The chief executive has keenly pointed out that the Macau government has been run by “small kids faking adults”,” Mr Chung said. “How exactly does he, as a leader, propose to start curing the malaise he has so succinctly identified?”
Born in Macau in 1955, Mr Ho is the son of the city’s famous businessman Ho Yin, who died in 1983 after playing a leading role within the Chinese community for decades. After gaining a business management degree in Canada in 1978, Edmund Ho worked as an auditor and became a certified accountant in Canada in 1981. He came back to Macau in 1983 to take over his family business, working as the general manager of Tai Fung Bank.
Mr Ho was elected as the first chief executive of Macau on May 15, 1999, with a support rating of 82 per cent. His second term was uncontested, after he garnered 297 endorsement forms out of the 300-member Election Committee for his candidature nomination. The term of office of Macau’s chief executive is five years, and no individual may serve for more than two consecutive terms. Mr Ho’s leadership is expected to conclude at the end of next year.
The successor
The burden of expectation is upon a very select few to take over as Macau’s next chief executive, but then again, it always has been.
By May next year the 300 members of Macau’s Election Committee will be selected by the central government and a few months later asked to cast their votes and decide who will become the city’s new chief executive.
With only a handful of genuine candidates, competition is hardly seen as aggressive. Many believe the committee process is effectively designed to allow Beijing to settle who is given the winnable position with old favours, affiliations and friendships sorted out behind closed doors.
According to legislator and founding chairman of the New Democratic Macau Association, António Ng Kuok-cheong, there are only three candidates with a chance to win. These are secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Fernando Chui Sai-on, secretary for Economy and Finance Francis Tam Pak-yuen and Executive Council member Ho Iat-seng.
“One of them will be chosen by the central government, something we will probably know in January or February next year,” Mr Ng said. “Before no-one knows who they really support. If the central government supports someone outside this group, that would mean the central government has no confidence in the ruling class of Macau. And that would be very significant. If, on the contrary, the central government picks one of them, it will perpetuate the image of collusion between the local government and business people.”
Macau’s second chief executive will be chosen by 100 people from the industrial, commercial and financial sectors; by 80 from the cultural and educational sectors and other professions; by 80 from social services, labour, religious and other sectors; and by 40 deputies to the Legislative Council and members of municipal entities, Macau deputies in the National People’s Congress and representatives of Macau members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
Despite widespread calls to work towards a more democratic process, the law was approved last month with no major changes regarding the one in force for the two previous elections. This infuriated pro-democracy legislators who were advocating a larger representation of the local community in the Election Committee.
Mr Ng said his party would continue to fight for direct election of the chief executive by at least 2019. He said his association would not run a candidate in the election because it was fundamentally opposed to the process. “In Hong Kong they are going to start discussing next year the political reform, and I think we should do the same in 2010,” he said. “In this system there’s no way we are going to participate. I will not participate in the Election Committee also.”
Pro-Beijing legislator Kwan Tsui Hang argued Macau was not ready to directly elect its own chief executive. Ms Kwan
said the current system of having a 300-strong Election Committee worked well, but in future she would like to see the number increased so the process gained more acceptance in the wider community. “I think democracy is a necessary step, in all countries this is a trend, the difference is the speed at which it should happen,” she said. “We need to look at two problems and they include the development of political leadership in Macau and the degree of maturity of the local citizens about their participation in democracy.”
And while she ultimately supports a move to a more democratic process, Ms Kwan said it should be slower than the process set to take place in Hong Kong. “We need time, we need to wait until the residents understand what democracy is,” she said. “They need to consider voting as a sacred activity.”
Many believe it is the Election Committee process that is hampering that progression. Mr Chung said talk to any Macau citizen, except the 300 on the Election Committee, about their opinion of the chief executive candidates and invariably you get the same answer. “Why should I care when I can’t vote?” he said.
This view was supported by Dr Chou. “I don’t think the people of Macau will be really concerned about who will be the next chief executive, as under the current political system they have no choice,” he said.
To make matters worse, Dr Chou said the Election Committee members were not even representatives of the people. “All the members of the Election Committee ... are simply leaders of interest groups which tend to represent the interests of their leaders rather than their members,” he said. “Definitely the system cannot serve the interests of average Macau people.”
Under the current system, selection of the Election Committee members is seen by many as the most important of all political processes in Macau. Mr Pun, who has served on the past two Election Committees, said it was time the law changed to allow greater flexibility and a pathway to democracy. “The central government should not influence, the right candidate who will really care for Macau will emerge if there is no interference,” he said. “The central government can do corruption checks and this type of thing, but there should be no manoeuvring. Of course the people of Macau would like to vote for their own leader and the rights of the citizens should be respected.”
There is no doubt that all candidates will be fighting both public and internal perceptions of their links to the business sector following the Ao Man Long corruption case. Mr Pun and Ms Kwan both agreed that corruption was still a serious problem in Macau. “Three years ago in the election of the Legislative Assembly the corruption problem was relatively severe,” Ms Kwan said. “A new law has been passed in relation to election malpractice, now we need to execute the law enforcement. The law should severely punish this behaviour of bribing in elections.”
Mr Chung said one important thing Mr Ho had not do during his term in office was “nourish” Macau’s political talent pool. Ms Kwan agreed there was a lack of mature political leaders in the city. But she said after so many years “under colonisation” by the Portuguese, it would take time for this to evolve. “There is a lack of depth but we only have a very short history since the handover,” she said. “The role of the chief executive is extremely important, he is the person who needs to lead Macau towards self autonomy. I think the people of Macau are very concerned about the selection of the next chief executive.”
Bill Chou Kwok-ping
“I don’t think the people of Macau will be really concerned about who will be the next chief executive, as under the current political system they have no choice.”
Kwan Tsui-hang
“We need time, we need to wait until the residents understand what democracy is. They need to consider voting as a sacred activity.”
Paul Pun Chi-meng
“The central government should not influence, the right candidate who will really care for Macau will emerge if there is no interference.”
Martin Chung
“The chief executive has keenly pointed out that the Macau government has been run by ‘small kids faking adults’. How exactly does he, as a leader, propose to start curing the malaise he has so succinctly identified?”
António Ng Kuok-cheong
“In this system there’s no way we are going to participate. I will not participate in the Election Committee also.”