Our good people

The extraordinary events of last week triggered an extraordinary reaction from the people of Macau.
It also revealed an extraordinary incapacity by our public departments to cope with a tragedy. It seems that something is wrong in a place where we need to have the assistance of the citizens to clean the city. Ditto when an autonomous Region needs to ask help from the PLA. Without the population and the soldiers our city would not be back on track.
It is also extraordinary the power of money. First, the immediate measures of the government were to put at the disposal of all entities loads of cash. Then, of course, the guilty conscience of the gaming operators made them open to many things, in a beauty contest which should make us wonder whether it is genuine or solely to keep in the good graces of the government.
Well, another lesson shall be learned: the behaviour of non-residents – Filipinos, Nepalese, Vietnamese, non-resident Chinese and others – towards a city which treats them most of the time with something akin to a dismissive attitude. Despite the catastrophic conditions of Hato, these selfless individuals went to the streets to clean up and help all of society. They are heroes.
It is a lesson which, hope­fully, our politicians will take on board when next they mull laws restricting the rights of the members of these communities. The same shall apply to the so-called expats. We have felt a sense of brotherhood as never before. No barriers before the tragedy were erected. The images of an integrated people should make us hopeful for the future of Macau.
When pitfalls exist, people tend to unite. We had that in Macau. Unfortunately, as in many other situations, in two or three months, in a city where an interview with a newspaper is seen as propaganda, our officials will forget what happened and start imposing difficulties upon those communities who have come to feel Macau is their home.
Since many long years ago, Macau has been an amalgam of creeds, races and origins. It is in the bones of our city and it must continue to be so. Respect for the rights of foreigners should be one of the priorities of our government. And the same applies to the respect of freedom of the press and free speech – unlike another catastrophic event last week when Hong Kong journalists made us feel a little ashamed of certain interpretations.