The Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government Wednesday introduced to the public a draft bill on safeguarding the state security based upon the SAR's Basic Law Article 23 (BL23).

The public consultation of the bill, an effort by the SAR government to legislate the state security law in line with the BL23, will start from Wednesday to the end of next month.

Under the SAR's BL23, Macao 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 organizations or bodies from conducting activities that endanger national security in the Region, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies of the SAR from establishing ties with those foreign political organizations or bodies.

Before Macao's return to China in 1999, the relevant legal clauses of the Portuguese Penal Code concerning national security applied in Macao, but after the establishment of the Macao SAR in the same year, these legal clauses were invalidated. The SAR's current criminal law only covers the security of the region itself.

The SAR's Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah told a press conference here on Wednesday that to maintain the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the State is "a basic constitutional duty ", and to implement the "one country, two systems" policy, the central government did not directly extend the application of mainland's relevant law to Macao, but to authorize the SAR to enact the law on its own, which demonstrates "the extensive trust bestowed by the country on the SAR and its people."

The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Macao SAR was quick to sound out its support to the bill. It said in a statement that whether from the perspectives of implementing the " one country, two systems" policy, or fulfilling the SAR's constitutional duty, or in view of enhancing Macao's own legal system, the SAR is obliged to legislate on state-security matters.

According to the draft bill, which includes 15 clauses, the penalty for the state-security crimes will be based on the SAR' s current Penal Code, which means the maximum sentence for state- security crimes would amount to 25 years, but a person term of 30 years can still be meted out by the court if a person is convicted of state-security and other crimes combined.

As for the concerns that the rights of local civilians might be infringed once the law is enacted, Ho said the SAR government will ensure that the basic rights and freedom of the civilians, including freedom of speech, information, press, etc. prescribed by the Basic Law are "fully guaranteed".

"On the one hand the contents of the bill are totally in accordance with the stipulations of the BL23, on the other hand the bill makes sure an appropriate balance between the civilians' basic rights and freedom and the state security," Ho noted.

To further quell some people's fears of a possible government crackdown on the civilians' rights and freedom, the chief executive will personally host six public consultation meetings to explain the newly-drafted bill on state security, which will start on Wednesday night, according to the press releases from the SAR's Government Information Bureau.

The SAR's Secretary for Administration and Justice Florinda da Rosa Silva Chan also explained that if the criminal activities do not involve state security matters, the state-security law will not be invoked in court trial.

In terms of the theft of state secrets, a spokeswoman of the SAR government said that the definition of the crime is limited solely to the activities of stealing, spying on and bribing for state secrets, and the person being accused of such crime can only be convicted after court trial.

The bill is expected to be passed by the SAR's Legislative Assembly to become law within next year, as Ho said that he has hoped to finish the legislative work of the bill during his tenure as the SAR's chief executive which ends next year, and believed that it can be completed before his tenure expires.

(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2008)