Macau

Peaceful protests and growing discontent: A first-hand account of protest in Macau
Interviews with local Macau workers

More, higher casinos and hotels. (the lotus shape building, “Grand Lisboa” from billionaire Stanley Ho)

Macau is currently attracting more and more tourists and casino goers- prompting many in Hong Kong are beginning to sit up and take notice of their traditionally unimportant and forgotten neighbor. Macau is also developing more and more vocal civil society groups – including those promoting labour rights.

In advance of 1 October 2007, Macau was packed with people for this year’s National Day holiday, some come to try their luck at the newly opened Venetian Casino, in the second biggest building of the world while some are here to visit the “the historic centre of Macau”, a UNESCO world heritage site. In addition, the place was covered with journalists from its sister city, Hong Kong, to observe the protest planned to for 1 October in the event the protest is as dramatic as the one which occurred on 1 May which resulted in the shooting of a bystander.[NOTE 1]

IHLO observed the protests between 30 September and 1 October and talked to the locals about their views.  Although the mainstream media all reported the protests as peaceful and praised the police for doing a better job in handling this protest, it is clear that social discontent will continue to haunt the territory.

Protest marchs

On the 30 September came the first protest, joined by some 5,000 motorcyclists, [NOTE 2] in a two-hour slow-drive protest through the busy city centre to the government headquarters, in opposition to the new Road Traffic Law. Given that there are more than 80,000 motorbikes in Macau with less than 30,000 parking spaces, the new law which increases the illegal parking fine from 200 MOP to 300 MOP is not widely seen as any way to solve the problem. Demonstrators complained that they have no alternatives, as the public transport network is inadequate, taxis are in short supply and packing places are insufficient.

While the riders drove along the road, many bystanders and non-cyclists showed their support by shouting slogans with them and cheered them. “It is very unfair; even though I don’t have a motorbike. They charge them the license fee (MOP 570/year) but don’t provide the parking spaces.” a bystander said. His comment is echoed by Antonio Ng, the independent legislator who also criticizes the government’s lack of proper city planning. “Suddenly we have so many tourists and our transport system can’t accommodate them. The sharp increase of construction sites and traffic congestion makes the environment suffer.” He added.

On 1 October, two labour unions, the Macau Workers’ Union and the Casino and Construction Workers’ Union organized simultaneous protests starting from the northern part of the Macau peninsula, a traditionally poorer and industrial area of Macau. The main demands are to “put in place tougher laws against illegal workers; an end to corruption; and to establish a quota for the ever-growing number of imported labourers”.

Banner of the Casino & Construction Workers’ Union

Ordinary Voices

IHLO talked to some protesters and found that the Macau people, especially the ordinary people, felt very unfairly treated under the current “economic boom” which has seen rapid increase in foreign investment and construction – coupled with massive increases in daily expenses.

Mr. Huang, a security guard working in a casino and a union member, complained, “My Company didn’t allow me to take a day’s leave today, because it knew that I planned to come to the protest. I have a colleague who is very active in the union and when the company found out he was fired.” He had to leave the protest early to attend his afternoon shift.

Mr. Liang, a construction worker, said that though he had a monthly income of about 9,000 MOP, he was upset by the current situation. “I work for 450 MOP per day, but I don’t get jobs very often. Once the employers get the imported labourers, they cut our orders. We are just the replacement, before the imported labourers arrive. For the same wages, the imported workers work for more than 12 hours a day and it is just vicious competition. It is difficult for people at my age to learn another profession and our government doesn’t do anything to protect us workers. It only knows how to please the developers.”

Ms Liang & Ms Xie

Ms Liang, a dishwasher at a restaurant, is not happy with her income. “I used to earn some 3,000 MOP and recently got a pay rise to 4,000 MOP. But everything is so expensive. My husband and I share a flat with three other families, very crowded, but we can’t afford to rent a bigger flat. The government ment said it would build cheaper flats for us but it is just an empty promise. [NOTE 3] I applied for a government flat in 2003 and still haven’t got anywhere. We don’t know how long we have to wait, who is eligible for a flat or anything. No transparency at all!”

For a new flat, the selling price has gone up from 300 MOP per square feet to now more than 1,000 MOP. Though there are many construction sites now in Macau, they are only building hotels, casinos and luxury apartments, which the majority of the working population cannot afford[NOTE 4] . The government has sold its land, according to legislator Antonio Ng, at ten percent of the market price to the developers in order to attract investment and the government has not kept any authority on deciding the land use. So why would the developers build cheap flats for the Macau residents, when they could choose to build hotels to accommodate Chinese tourists?

Her colleague, Ms Xie, said it was the first protest she ever participated. Like Ms Liang, she doesn’t see any benefits from the ever-growing GDP. “In the past, we were all poor and it didn’t bother us much. We saw hope. But now the income gap gets bigger and things are more expensive. I can only afford to eat vegetables and rice and I can’t imagine what would happen if I get sick. We just feel very hopeless.”

The smooth handling of the two-day protests proved the government is getting more used to such protests and is more capable in dealing peacefully with protests, but the bigger challenge, the distrust, discontent and dissatisfaction from the people is not going to go away after the protest. Is it ready to take up this bigger challenge?

IHLO
October 2007

NOTES