Macau has been partially “governed” in the shadows. They are not official, and don’t make transparent decisions in the collective interest following the laid down rules.
It is also not a body, which produces politically legitimate decisions – since the people have little or no say under this deformed system. This kind of shadow government is one of underlying, quiet decisions, where nothing is on the record.
The “government” we are talking about has more to do with the relationship between public officials and private agents. It feeds on close relationships only possible in a small place like Macau. It breathes because it operates under the radar, dominated by a web of red tape, incompetence and fear, not to mention the lobbying games that are seldom reported by the media, which is left with little capacity, and many times even shows less vocation, to perform broad scope investigations.
This “shadow government” also depends on the inertia of decent government officials who have convinced themselves that the system will never change.
For nearly 10 years, these people have survived in a state of grace, only because good and decent people who – due to negligence and a lack of time – sign on the dotted policy line while looking the other way.
It is vital to detect and isolate these elements, which through their actions, form an image of Macau that puts it in the same league as less developed countries in Southeast Asia. This image, which no one seems worried about even though they should be, has not gone unnoticed. Like it or not, we are an international city, the world is watching and we have to start behaving like we know it is.
We would like to have much better people working here and to learn from them, but now they are refusing to come, regardless of the offers. Quite openly they say that they don’t want to bring their families to a place which provides them with no future.
Some investors regard Macau in the same way they regard governments from the sub-Saharan regions of Africa. Who in his right mind, would invest knowing that they may fall into the hands of an unscrupulous group of people who only allow certain businesses to prosper – and only if they abide by the outdated rules of an undeserving elite?
The power of the shadows is evident from the number of stories we are told, and the thousands we must be unaware of. These stories are left unpublished because evidence is hard to find. This is not a simple case of murder, with a killer and a victim, here only criminals are involved.
Don’t believe everything you’re told: this will not stop anytime soon, because it seems no one has the capability, or the means, or the courage to stop it. But there is hope. Or so we want to believe.
Contrary to what some might have thought not too long ago, our society is starting to show consistent – if disparate – signs of discontent, and one of these days, this will manifest itself in a voice that cannot be ignored, and believe us, the world will still be watching.

ID blackmail

A few months ago we spoke about Macau’s political, economic and social situation at a function organised at Intercham – a group of international commerce chambers based in Hong Kong.
One of the participants came up to us and said: “I read your magazine every month and sometimes I feel like you’re anti-business”.
In other words, in the opinion of this general manager of a world renowned hotel chain, this magazine has a habit of fighting for the workers, instead of the bosses.
This may be so, although in a less intentional way than it may seem at first glance.
The fact that Macau has always been in the hands of the business establishment, allied to the previous administration’s refusal to legislate for the creation of unions and the possibility of labour strikes – although this administration has followed suit, despite the Basic Law’s dispositions – may sometimes condition certain attitudes.
The way we see it, journalism is based on social responsibilities, ethical and moral values that potentially lead to the defence of the underprivileged classes.
While economic journalism is closer to economic power, it should follow the same logic, even if there’s a risk of creating conflicts with clients and sources.
Still, there are times when the opposite is also true, when the workers’ issues are used by less scrupulous politicians or officials that try to generate consensus under false pretences.
We have said it before: to indiscriminately give priority to local manpower without any other justification than the unemployment rate is beyond irresponsible. We don’t create new jobs for local workers by chasing away non-residents.
The employment arithmetic is not that simple. There are countless other factors and one of the most important is qualifications.
At present we are witnessing a distortion of the worker-employer relationship.
Qualifications have been removed from the equation and the over-riding factor has become the possession of a Resident ID. The result is that many companies complain about being the victims of virtual blackmail from local workers who regard themselves as untouchables, since companies have no chance of hiring from abroad, and local talent is very scarce or even non-existent for some types of jobs.
The icing on the cake comes from certain government departments that don’t even blink before threatening to cut the working quotas of companies that don’t employ a certain number of local workers.
Who cares if they’re good or bad, if they know the job or not, as long as they hold a resident card.
If we follow this path, without a balanced professional development policy and continuous training programs, the only thing we’ll achieve is the artificial filling of jobs, with added costs to companies and no progress in professional re-qualification.

by Paulo A. Azevedo