The Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday unanimously passed the outline of a government-initiated bill regulating the operation of the Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) Committee for Safeguarding National Security, the organisational structure and operation of which are currently governed by an administrative regulation.
Government-drafted bills must be passed by the legislature to become law, while government-drafted administrative regulations, aka by-laws, do not require the legislature’s approval.
The bill, the outline of which was passed by the legislature yesterday, proposes to list various new statutory functions and powers of the committee, which an administrative regulation cannot govern and must be regulated by a law.
After yesterday’s passage of its outline, the bill will be passed to one of the legislature’s standing committees for an article-by-article review, after which it will be resubmitted to another plenary session for its second and final debate and article-by-article vote.
Secretary for Security Chan Tsz King introduced the outline of the bill during a plenary session of the legislature’s hemicycle yesterday.
Chan said during yesterday’s plenary session that the bill aims to formally regulate the operation of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security in the form of a law, which highlights the seriousness and authority of the committee tasked with carrying out various duties and functions concerning Macau’s safeguarding of national security.
Chan also said that by taking the opportunity to enact a law to regulate the committee, the bill also proposes various improvements to the functions and powers, organisational structure, and operation of the committee.
The MSAR government set up its Committee for Safeguarding National Security in 2018 through an administrative regulation, which is tasked with assisting the chief executive in policymaking for matters concerning the safeguarding of national security.
The bill proposes that the committee will be an entity tasked with the MSAR’s affairs concerning the safeguarding of national security and assuming the MSAR’s primary responsibility for safeguarding national security, with its operation subject to the oversight and accountability of the Central People’s Government.
Since its establishment in 2018, the committee’s administrative regulation was amended in 2021 adding the posts of a national security affairs adviser and three national security technical advisers appointed by the central government to the committee.
The bill, the outline of which was passed by the legislature yesterday, proposes formally listing the committee’s current duties of assessing whether chief executive election candidates uphold the MSAR Basic Law and bear allegiance to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the MSAR, as well as assessing whether legislative election candidates uphold the MSAR Basic Law and bear allegiance to the MSAR.
These duties are currently not formally listed in the current administrative regulation governing the committee’s operation.
In addition to the regulation of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security, the bill also proposes amendments to the Judicial Organisation Framework Law.
According to the current version of the Judicial Organisation Framework Law, only judges holding Chinese nationality can conduct trials for cases of the crimes listed in Macau’s national security law, and only prosecutors holding Chinese nationality can handle such cases as well.
The bill proposes that the rule (Chinese nationality) will also be extended to all types of litigation processes such as civil litigation, if the respective cases concern national security.
The bill also proposes that trials for any types of cases shall be conducted behind closed doors if the respective judges have concluded that open trials of such cases will adversely affect national security.
Secretary for Security Chan Tsz King addresses yesterday’s plenary session in the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) hemicycle. – Photo: GCS
