an action-police

Of all the institutions or legislative changes that were introduced in Portugal over the last few years, there are two which, being distinctly protestant in their origins, have no chance of long-term survival in this mostly Catholic country. One is ASAE (the other is Processo de Bolonha in universities).

I have argued below that our culture at its best does restrict freedom of thought but admits of no restritions with regard to freedom of peaceful action. Thus, we can live with thought-polices, and we have lived with them for several centuries in our history. What we cannot live with is action-policies. ASAE is an action-police par excellence.

You might have noticed in the newspapers that a group of members of Parliament is contesting the constitutionality of the law that created ASAE. You should not take the constitutional argument very seriously. Sooner or later, with this argument or any other, we are going to finish with ASAE. The true reason is that it is an institution totally foreign to our tradition.

Actually, the job is already partially done. If you were an employee of ASAE, how great would you feel going to work tomorrow after you learned in the newspapers that the very existence of your institution is being questioned by members of Parliament and ultimately will end up in Constitutional Court?

No, we are not going to extinguish ASAE. Our Catholic culture is not that radical. There is a place for everyone even for those that have no role in society. What we are going to do is to empty ASAE of its police powers and turn it into a totally irrelevant bureaucracy. Within a year or two you won't hear about ASAE anymore.