Money politics and political mobilization in Macau: The 1996 legislative assembly elections

Asian Survey

Volumn 37, Issue 10, 1997, Pages 944-960

  Yee, Herbert S ^a  

^a HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERSITY   (Hong Kong)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 5844264820     PISSN: 00044687     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2645615     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. There are currently about 10,000 Macanese in Macau. Many of them speak both Chinese and Portuguese and are senior civil servants in Macau's administration.
2. Hong Kong Economic Journal Monthly, no. 36 (June 1980), p. 40.
3. Portuguese legislators were distrustful of the Macanese. Some Portuguese elites openly called for rejection of the Macanese proposal. See Far Eastern Economic Review, April 18, 1980, p. 37.
4. Pai-Shing Semi-Monthly, no. 66 (February 16, 1984), pp. 42-44. See also Lo Shiu Hing, Political Development in Macau (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1995), p. 33.
5. Pai-Shing Semi-Monthly, no. 66 (February 16, 1984), pp. 42-44. See also Lo Shiu Hing, Political Development in Macau (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1995), p. 33.
6. The sixth seat was designated for charitable and cultural interest groups.
7. The deal was reported to have been made during d'Assumpcao's visit to China before the elections. See Quarterly Economic Review of Hong Kong and Macao, no. 3 (London: Economist Intelligence Unit, 1984), p. 23.
8. For example, Ho assumed a leading role mediating during the 1966 riots.
9. Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan were allocated seats in the PRC's National People's Congress and the National Political Consultative Committee prior to formal reunification.
10. Journal Va Kio (Macau), September 18, 1996. The remark was made by Wong Hau Keong, president of the Macau Association of Social Sciences and director of the Macau Research Center at the University of Macau.
11. Herbert S. Yee, Liu Bo-long, and Ngo Tak-wing, "Macau's Mass Political Culture," Asian Journal of Public Administration, 15:2 (December 1993), pp. 198, 191.
12. In the old d'Hondt rule, the first candidate of each political group obtained the total votes the group received, the second candidate acquired half, the third acquired one-third, the fourth a quarter, the fifth one-fifth, and so on. Clearly, the old d'Hondt rule favored large and strong political groups; it helped d'Assumpcao's Electoral Union win four seats in the 1980 elections and Alexandre Ho's group win three in the 1988 elections. For the differences between the old and new d'Hondt rule and their effects on Macau's elections results, see Herbert S. Yee, "Macau's Electoral System and the 1992 Legislative Assembly Elections," in Herbert S. Yee, ed., Macau Beyond 1999 (Hong Kong: Wide Angle, 1993), pp. 41-54.
13. For an excellent account of the political mobilization used during the 1992 elections, see Lo Shiu Hing, Political Development in Macau, pp. 84-88.
14. For a more detailed account of the event, see Herbert S. Yee, Liu Bo-long and Ngo Tak-Wing, Political Culture of the Macau Chinese (Macau: Macau Foundation, 1993), pp. 72-73.
15. Lo Shiu Hing, Political Development in Macau, p. 88.
16. Ibid., p. 89.
17. "Choose Carefully, Vote Actively," MDN, September 20, 1992.
18. Ibid., September 8, 11, 12, and 15, 1996.
19. Ibid., September 9 and 16, 1996.
20. Ibid., September 10 and 13, 1996.
21. Personal interview with Ng Kuok Cheong, September 16, 1996.
22. On September 15, 1996, the local television station organized a forum and invited candidates from all 12 political groups to participate. The next morning, though the MDN gave abstracts of the speeches and remarks made by a number of candidates from various groups, it did not mention any remarks made by Ng Kuok Cheong, Wong Cheong Nam, and Alexandre Ho. See MDN, September 16, 1996.
23. Personal interview with Tong Chi Kin, the first candidate of UPD, October 5, 1996.
24. Department of Statistics and Census, Government of Macau, Survey of Employment, 1995 (June 1996), p. 142, and Revised Estimates of the Gross Domestic Product, 1982-1995 (March 1997), p. 130.
25. Department of Statistics and Census, Government of Macau, Survey of Employment, 1995 (June 1996), p. 142, and Revised Estimates of the Gross Domestic Product, 1982-1995 (March 1997), p. 130.
26. Journal Va Kio (Macau), November 22, 1996.
27. The exchange rate in September 1996 stood at 8 patacas = US$1. No candidates were charged by the Election Committee for violating the electoral laws after the elections. However, the Election Committee received 20 specific complaints against vote buying activities from voters. (See MDN, October 5, 1996.) In the author's interviews with Ng Kuok Cheong, Wong Cheong Nam, Tong Chi Kin, and Leung Heng Teng (first candidate on the UNIPRO list), all the interviewees pointed to vote buying by the five business groups. The author's former students at the University of Macau, who had assisted some groups during the campaign, also pointed out the prevalence of vote buying activities among some groups. The following account of "money politics" in the 1996 elections was based on my interviews with voters, candidates, and campaign aides, reports of improper activities from the local press, and my own observations on the election day.
28. "A Report of Electoral Registration in 1996," Administracao, no. 33 (September 1966), p. 724.
29. Personal interviews with voters, September 22, 1996.
30. Personal interviews with ADE and FM campaign aides, September 22, 1996.
31. The election day coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, an important event second only to the Lunar New Year Festival. It is the Chinese custom to give so-called "moon cakes" to one's superior, relatives, and friends during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
32. The director of the Department of Public Administration warned two days before the election day that anyone involved in briberies, either giving or taking a bribe, would be subjected to a maximum of five years in prison. See MDN, September 20, 1996. The undersecretary for Administration, Education, and Youth Affairs also warned the political groups and citizens not to be involved in briberies and appealed to the electors not to vote for the groups involved in bribing. MDN, September 21, 1996.
33. A former student who worked as a campaign aide for a probusiness group told the author that he paid the voters cash in the bus on the ride to the polling stations.
34. Ironically, the same law also forbids the policeofficer from going within 100 meters of the polling stations on the grounds of preventing interference with the polls.
35. For reports and comments on the election results, see the local press of September 23, 1996. Tong Chi Kin, the first candidate of UPD, expressed his surprise at the outcome of the election during an interview with the author on October 5, 1996.
36. For the distribution of votes in all polling stations, see Official Bulletin of Macau, October 7, 1996, pp. 2167-69.
37. Macau enjoyed a double digit, annual economic growth rate in the 1980s and early 1990s. The enclave's per capita GDP exceeded 10,000 US dollars in 1993 and was ranked number 5 in Asia, behind Japan, Brunei, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
38. Personal interview with Wong Han Keong, director of the Centre of Macau Studies, University of Macau, on October 21, 1996.
39. On election day, one elderly woman went to Wong Cheong Nam's campaign headquarters after casting her vote and asked for the remaining 400 patacas promised to her. She apparently went to the wrong place. Wong called the police, who arrested the old woman. However, the woman was not charged due to lack of evidence as Wong could not prove a specific political group had bought the woman's vote. The above was based on Wong Cheong Nam's own account of the case during the interview on October 14, 1996. See also Overseas Chinese News, September 23, 1996.
40. The education figure is based on the 1991 population census data, provided by the Census and Statistics Department
41. The Official Bulletin of Macau, October 7, 1996, p. 2166. By comparison, the percentage for the 1995 Legislative Council elections in Hong Kong was 0.9%.
42. Ibid., p. 2171.
43. As informed by a Ng Kuok Cheong campaign aide on November 1, 1996.
44. The democrats coined the phrase to imply that Macau is actually governed jointly by the Portuguese and Chinese governments.