Around 1,600 protesters attended a protest yesterday led by directly elect legislator José Pereira Coutinho, together with the Macau Worker Helper Union and other associations.
The protest started at 3:00pm in Tap Seac Square, from which the crowd walked to Government Headquarters to submit a petition urging the MSAR Government to withdraw the new transportation regulations which came into effect on January 1.
Coutinho told reporters prior to the protest that they wish to negotiate with the Secretary for Transport and Public Works in order to understand the intention of the government’s decision to drastically increase transportation fees; related in particular to parking, vehicle inspection and ‘illegal parking’ fines.
“The government does not have enough resources or time and thus appointed a company to do the favour [of clamping and towing vehicles] and it is the Transport Bureau that is fining vehicles,” said Coutinho. “This [the loss experienced by the company due to unchanged fees by the government] should not be the reason for increasing the fees.”
The legislator again remarked that it is unacceptable to increase the fines by such an extreme extent.
“The road is used by all of us,” said the legislator. “The action of towing and clamping illegally parked vehicles should not be seen as a business matter, calculating the loss and profit.”
When asked whether the fees should be paid using the public coffers, Coutinho pointed out the different subsidies provided by the government.
“If the [parking meter] company is experiencing a loss, the government can subsidise this company, as it usually and currently does – subsidies for electricity, water and buses,” Coutinho said.
Meanwhile, most of the protesters expressed their dissatisfaction with the rocketing prices and insufficient number of parking places.
“I only earn MOP10,000 per month and I’m fined several times a month,” said one of the protesters.
Complete farce
Another directly elected lawmaker, Ng Kuok Cheong, also attended the protest and
expressed his support for the increase in transportation fees in general but not the government’s administrative procedure of this new regulation.
“The government’s administration is a complete farce,” said Legislator Ng. However, regarding control measures, such as “increasing the vehicle tax or prohibiting people from buying any vehicles at a certain time,” relating to the purchase of new vehicles, the measures remaining “confidential” until their implementation, is justified.
However, relating to vehicles already in circulation, Ng said that the public sjould have been forewarned of the new regulations, calling them a conspiracy.
“Since the government has been criticised for its inability to solve the city’s traffic issues, it seems the government is trying to create this to get people’s attention,” Ng said. “With the protest made by the residents, the government will claim that it is making efforts to improve the city while putting the blame on residents for not agreeing with the government’s efforts.”
Legislator Ng also pointed out that many of the protesters are fighting against the increase of fees rather than the government’s administrative procedures, indicating that this phenomenon suited the government’s intention.
“The government has succeeded in using this farce to provoke citizens in order to redirect citizens’ attention away from its failure in its administration as well as its inability to resolve the city’s traffic; my point of view is that these political means are despicable,” remarked Ng.
Another protest
A protest led by the New Macau Gaming Professionals Association will be held today in Tap Sec at 4:00pm. The purpose of the protest is to urge gaming operators to increase workers’ salaries, claiming that salaries have remained unchanged despite an increase seen in other expenses and inflation.
