Intergovernmental Relations Between Mainland China and the Macao SAR 485

23.3.3 Government Inertia

Despite the threat to social instability, the government appears to be so preoccupied with vested interests that there is a lack of political will to fix the problem. Instead, it resorts to making ad hoc, improvised concessions, such as bolstering welfare benefits and other social provisions, to lure people away from attending the demonstration.34 It appears that the government’s tactic is to use the huge budget surplus to buy out opposition. The ultimate purchase appears to have been made just before the 2008 May Day demonstration. In a question and answer period of the Legislative Assembly on 22 April 2008, Edmund Ho announced that each permanent and temporary Macao resident would be given, respectively, MOP5000 and MOP3000 (Jornal Va Kio, April 23, 2008). Turnout for the demonstration was lower than expected.35 However, this collective buyout is an indication that the government has lost the political will to undertake any major policy initiative in the remaining one and a half years of its term of office.36 This government is taking a politically expedient tactic to soften political pressure in order to avoid undertaking any policy reforms that may be harmful to its cronies and that may stir up more controversies.

With the Ho government increasingly demonstrating inertia in policy making, the initiatives come from elsewhere. An example is the heritage conservation movement devoting itself to the protecting of the Guia Lighthouse. The lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse on the coast of China, and is one of the most important icons representing Macao to the world. In 2005, UNESCO approved Beijing’s application to have the lighthouse together with a number of other sites in Macao enlisted in its World Heritage List. The Macao government was jubilant in securing this designation because it could mean a big boost for the tourism industry. However, it was soon revealed that land in close proximity to the lighthouse had been sold to developers in the red-hot property boom. Approval was given to build tall buildings on sites around the lighthouse, potentially blocking its beam from being seen by the approaching ships. The traditional lack of urban planning in Macao is surely to blame for this sad situation. However, the fact that Edmund Ho’s government removed building height restrictions in the surrounding area in 2006, after the award of the World Heritage title, aggravated the situation (Jornal do Cidadao, December 5, 2007). A group of heritage conservationists was formed to raise public awareness on, and to petition the government to preserve the environment of the lighthouse. Implicit in their message was a critique of the Edmund Ho government allowing politically connected developers to damage Macao’s heritage for private interests. When their efforts in Macao produced little result, they changed their strategy. They alerted the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, and petitioned it to pay closer attention to the danger facing the Macao heritage sites (Jornal Va Kio, December 3, 2007). UNESCO, in turn, issued a warning to Beijing. The secretary of cultural social affairs and culture, Chui Sai On, was summoned to Beijing for consultation in January 2008 (Jornal Va Kio, January 19, 2008). Three months later, the government re-imposed height restrictions on buildings near the Guia Lighthouse (Macao Daily,

34The most well known is perhaps the so-called “nine measures” proposed by Edmund Ho shortly before the 2007 May Day demonstrations. The nine measures were: (1) lowering pension payments to 60 years old; (2) suspending the real estate residency scheme; (3) increasing the supply of public housing; (4) fi x the traffic congestion by building a mass transit system; (5) public auctioning of some residential land; (6) increase the benefits for civil servants;

(7) launch a non-compulsory provident fund; (8) the proposal of an amendment to the Labour Relations Law and a migrant workers bill to the Legislative Assembly in 2007; and (9) the provision of a computer to each teacher and increase the student loans and grants (see Jornal Va Kio, April 9, 2007).

35Personal communication with Au Kam San (May 1, 2008), a key organizer of the 2008 May Day demonstration.

36The Macao Basic Law prescribes a maximum of two-consecutive terms of office for the chief executive. Thus, Edmund Ho cannot be re-elected when he finishes his second term in 2009.

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486 Public Administration in Southeast Asia

April 17, 2008). The circumstances give strong credence to the argument that if Beijing did not intervene, it is unlikely that a restriction plan has been put in place again would be put in place.

Another bombshell was dropped a few days later on April 22, 2008, when Edmund Ho declared in a question and answer session in the Legislative Assembly that his government would freeze the scale of the casino industry by not granting any more casino concessions beyond the current six, by not making available any more land for casino development, and by not approving any more applications for operating new gaming tables, all based on an order from President Hu Jintao (Apple Daily, April 23, 2008: A2). The central government was clearly concerned that the rapid expansion of the gaming sector would worsen the structural imbalance of the Macao economy and intensify social conflicts.37 Speculation had been floating around as to why Ho had to name names in announcing the new policy, not merely because it was not conforming to bureaucratic etiquette, but also because doing so would undermine the credibility of the OCTS formula. Nevertheless, this incident is clear evidence that the major policy initiatives of the Macao SAR have been taken from Beijing. While many local commentators called this instruction another demonstration of Beijing’s caring concern on the well-being of Macao, Ramirez and Pessanha (2008) note that this is an infringement on the area of local autonomy under the OCTS formula.

The Ho government has avoided taking any policy initiatives on major issues of public concern. Even daily administrative functions apparently of a non-political and non-controversial nature require citizens to take extraordinary measures before they are resolved. One such incident is a public sanitary issue caused by a drainage pipe backup in a vacant neighboring unit or caused by the action of irresponsible and uncooperative neighbors. As is demonstrated by many cases, citizens left helpless after taking their cases of leaky roofs to various concerned bureaus (Land and Public Works, Health, Municipal Government, Police and Housing) to no avail, and eventually they had to resort to petitioning the chief executive and/or getting media exposure before administrative intervention was forthcoming.38 The sad reality is that these are not isolated incidents. If the government allows mundane pipe backup stories repeatedly taking up media headlines, which exposes the maze of bureaucratic red tape that victims have to go through with no solution in sight, its credibility as a people-oriented and capable government will not escape unscathed.

After many complaints of bureaucratic incompetence, a roadmap for administrative reform was produced by the secretary for administration and justice, Ms. Florinda Chan, in June 2007 (Macao Daily, June 21, 2007). Commentators have pointed out that the roadmap lacks clear vision and priority. It looks more like an amalgamation of various activities the government has already said previously that it has planned to do. Moreover, there are important gaps. For instance, it does not handle the critical issue of departmental restructuring, which is seen as crucial to reducing

37The central government leaders have urged the Macao government to reduce the reliance on the gambling sector and to diversify its economy as early as March 2006. In reply, Edmund Ho ordered a comprehensive study of the situation, and said that he was confident that the goal of diversification could be achieved in 5–10 years’ time (Macao Daily, April 5, 2006). One and a half years’ later in November 2007, Ho was still talking of the need to carry out more studies and researches on the diversification issue (Jornal San Wa Ou, November 14, 2007). In a meeting with Premier Wen Jiaobao, Edmund Ho was told to seriously deal with the “deep-seated structural issues in Macao” (Macao Daily, November 24, 2007). In March 2008, Hu Jintao urged Ho to handle new issues that emerged in the process of development in a prudent and cautious way.

38See, for instance, the case exposed in Macao Daily (May 7, 2008). Earlier in 2006, the Land and Public Transport Bureau, in response to a question by Ng Kuok Cheong made in the Legislative Assembly, promised to deal with a pipe backup issue within 7 days after receiving the complaint (see Jornal Cheng Pou, August 10, 2006). Apparently, the situation did not improve and prompted fellow assembly member Leong Iok Wa to urge the government to take swift action in 2008 (Jornal Do Cidadao, June 15, 2008). Newspaper editorials have made the same appeal (see Macao Daily, April 3 and May 11, 2008).

©2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC