Comments

As a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China Macau has enjoyed a dynamic and lively autonomy framework that permits Macau to tackle its challenges and position itself with regard to the future. Although ten years may be considered a short period of time to monitor progress, the balance of its transition under China's responsibility is, from any perspective, positive and helpful.¹

China has refrained from interfering in the day-by-day business of Macau's governance although, here and there, it has made clear to Macau authorities that it wants the development of the region to be achieved through political stability and a sense of national unity and political accountability by Macau's elite. For its part, Macau's government has used the extensive powers invested by the Macau Basic Law (MBL), the mini-constitution of the territory, with steadiness and a sense of proportion, even though the scale of its operation has been, remarkably, conservative and modest. The Legislative Assembly has consolidated its role as the competent political forum for the Macau polity allowing all alternative judgments to be uttered and confronted, even though its record as Macau's primary legislative body has not been completely consistent with its constitutional obligations.² The judicial system has used its competencies without any interference from any of the other two branches of government in what is a confirmation of its independence.