After the Legislative Assembly (AL) passed a government-initiated bill establishing a law regulating the Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) Committee for Safeguarding National Security on Thursday, the local government announced on Friday the completion of its drawing-up of an administrative regulation governing the organisational structure and operation of the committee’s secretariat, comprising 34 officials.
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 duties, organisational structure, and operation of the MSAR’s Committee for Safeguarding National Security are currently governed by an administrative regulation, which came into force in 2018 when the committee was set up.
The new law, when it takes legal effect, will replace the 2018 administrative regulation governing the Committee for Safeguarding National Security.
The new law, with its final draft passed by the MSAR’s legislature on Thursday, regulates the duties, organisational structure, and operation of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security in the form of a law.
The new law, which will take effect on the day after its promulgation in the Official Gazette (BO), formally defines the committee as 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.
The committee is chaired by the MSAR’s chief executive.
According to the new law, the composition of the committee includes a secretariat, which is a standing administrative unit tasked with the committee’s daily operations and functioning. The secretariat is headed by the government’s secretary for security.
According to the new law, the organisational structure and operation of the committee’s secretariat shall be governed by an administrative regulation, which was announced by the local government during a press conference at Government Headquarters on Friday.
Secretary for Administration and Justice Wong Sio Chak, who is also the spokesman for the government’s top advisory Executive Council, and Judiciary Police (PJ) Director Sit Chong Meng hosted Friday’s press conference.
According to the press conference, the committee’s secretariat is directly accountable to the committee’s chairperson, i.e., the MSAR’s chief executive. In terms of administrative structure, the secretariat operates under the direct authority of the MSAR’s chief executive.
The new administrative regulation governing the committee’s secretariat will take effect on the same day as the new law on the committee.
The new law on the committee can be expected to be gazetted today at the earliest, in which case the law, alongside the new administrative regulation, will take effect tomorrow.
The organisational structure of the committee’s secretariat, according to Friday’s press conference, consists of 34 personnel, comprising a secretary-general, two deputy secretaries-general, two assistant secretaries-general, the heads of five departments, and 24 other personnel.
The secretariat’s five departments comprise Policy Study Department, Risk Prevention and Control Department, Liaison and Coordination Department, Publicity and Education Department, and General Support Department.
Wong said during the press conference that the government will announce the list of the officials taking up the posts of the secretary-general, the two deputy secretaries-general, and the two assistant secretaries-general, with the post of the secretary-general held by the secretary for security and the post of one of the two deputy secretaries-general held by the PJ director.
However, Wong said that the names of the officials taking up the posts of the five department heads as well as other personnel shall be kept confidential so the government will not announce their names to the public.
Secretary for Administration and Justice Wong Sio Chak (right) and Judiciary Police (PJ) Director Sit Chong Meng address Friday’s press conference at Government Headquarters. – Photo: Maria Cheang Ut Meng
