Only 0.40 percent of the 111,049 opinions expressed during a 45-day public consultation on the government’s proposed amendments to the Law on Safeguarding National Security, which took effect in February 2009, rejected the bill, the Office of the Secretary for Security said in a statement yesterday. 

According to the statement, 93.37 percent of the opinions supported the bill, while 0.40 percent opposed it. The statement classified the remaining 6.23 percent as “other or invalid” opinions. 

The public consultation comprising eight sessions was held by the government between August 22 and October 5. The government published its final report on the findings of the public consultation in a final report in the Chinese and Portuguese languages yesterday, consisting of 53 and 72 pages respectively.

The amendment bill will be submitted by the government to the Legislative Assembly (AL) in due course for debate and vote. 

The national security law is based on a requirement enshrined in Article 23 of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) Basic Law which states that the MSAR “shall enact laws, on its own, to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People’s Government, or theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organisations or bodies from conducting political activities in the Region, and to prohibit political organisations or bodies of the Region from establishing ties with foreign political organisations or bodies.”