Reports that Macau’s former top prosecutor, Ho Chio Meng, has been arrested by anti-graft agents for his role in a suspected multi-million dollar corruption racket is both bad news and good news for Macau.
Ho, who was reportedly arrested on Saturday trying to board a ferry to Hong Kong, is accused of pocketing kickbacks of almost HK$43 million from public works contracts worth HK$162 million while in office.
He is the second most senior official ever to face such allegations in Macau as Chinese President Xi Jinping continues to crack down on corruption across the length and breadth of China. The crackdown has, sadly, exposed just how widespread corruption has been.
But there is no doubt that a culture of cheating or the abuse of power cannot be tolerated and it is good news for Macau that — just like the Ao Man Long scandal in 2006 — the Commission Against Corruption is doing something about it.
Even if those prosecuted are fall guys for a wider group (which is often claimed) and even if it takes longer than it should to catch these guys, it shows the government are serious about trying to clean up corrupt officials within its midst.
We here at WGM applaud the Macau government for their ongoing pursuit of corrupt officials in the SAR.
