Au Kam San: from teacher to a directly elected legislator across five consecutive terms

Au Kam San is a directly elected member of the Legislative Assembly of the Macao SAR, returned for five consecutive terms from 2001 to 2021 — one of the longest-serving pro-democracy legislators in Macao. A teacher by background and a municipal councillor before the handover, he was an early co-founder of the New Macau Association and has long focused on electoral reform, universal suffrage and civil rights, contesting elections under the banners of the New Macau Association and later the New Democratic Macau Association.

From a classroom teacher to a municipal councillor and then five consecutive terms in the Legislative Assembly — Au Kam San invested two decades in the chamber on a single thread: electoral reform and civil rights.

Au Kam San is a directly elected member of the Legislative Assembly of the Macao SAR (2001–2021). A teacher by background and a municipal councillor before the handover, he was a co-founder of the New Macau Association. Returned for five consecutive terms, he is among the longest-serving pro-democracy legislators in Macao, his public standing built on electoral-reform advocacy, universal-suffrage campaigning and the scrutiny of public policy.

Profile

• Chinese Name: 區錦新
• English Name: Au Kam San
• Ancestry: Xinxing, Guangdong
• Born: 30 April 1957 (Macao)
• Domains: Politics · Education
• Industry: Education · Legislation
• Subject type: Official (directly elected legislator)
• Public standing: Pro-democracy legislator

Background

Au Kam San was born in Macao on 30 April 1957, with ancestral roots in Xinxing, Guangdong, and was a teacher by profession. In the late 1980s and 1990s, as Macao entered its handover transition, civil society and electoral politics gradually developed. Au entered public affairs in this period: he served as a municipal councillor from 1993 and, in the early 1990s, was a co-founder of the New Macau Association, a political group advocating the election of all Legislative Assembly seats and of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage. His teaching background and associational organising formed the starting point for the next twenty years of his legislative career.

Career

I. Municipal councillor and associational organising (1993–2001)

Before the handover, Macao had municipal bodies serving as district-level representative and administrative organs. Au served as a municipal councillor from 1993, taking part in district affairs and the oversight of public services. In the same period he was a core member of the New Macau Association, whose chief platform was the democratisation of the electoral system and full universal suffrage for the Legislative Assembly and the Chief Executive — and which became an important organisational base for Macao's pro-democracy camp.