Dear Editor,
I write as an Australian private citizen who first visited Macau in 2005 and has been an active business owner in the SAR since 2009.
When I first started visiting Macau I was immediately drawn to the unique east-meets-west culture, urban geography and people. I also saw great business opportunity and decided to invest heavily in Macau both emotionally and financially.
Some come to Macau for employment which may last a few years, but I immediately adopted Macau in my heart as a new and permanent home. I quickly realised the importance of trying to learn a little bit of Chinese, immersing in local culture as much as possible, and making an authentic contribution to the community. When others ask me when I am going to “go home,” I reply, “Macau is my home.”
Historically, there has been a very active community of Australians in Macau, many of whom passed on their knowledge and skills to local employees who have risen through the ranks. Australians have created jobs and made a significant contribution to the healthy and sustainable development of Macau. Many Australians love to explore the world and I think it is the Australian culture of “mateship,” along with being a young society which eschews class differences that sees Australians assimilating into cultures in a deeper way than some other foreigners. Australians think nothing of a doctor and a bricklayer being friends, going to the football or sharing a weekend BBQ together with their families.
Like all fair-minded people, I fervently hope that all nations can co-exist peacefully and co-operatively, doing trade together for the common good, respecting each other’s sovereignty, and developing economies and societies across the globe in a positive way. Being friends doesn’t mean always agreeing, but it does mean understanding and respecting that your friend might do things differently to the way you do, and they have every right to do so. Live and let live.
It is with this in mind that I have become terribly disappointed in the current posture of the Australian government towards China. The many examples have been well documented in the media. In recent years the Australian Prime Minister and other senior government ministers have made statements which are doing extreme harm to Australians living in Macau, Hong Kong and the rest of China.
This rhetoric, which is continuing to worsen and to damage Australia’s reputation abroad, eventually led to my resignation – on principal – as Vice Chairman of the Australian Chamber of Commerce Macau. But Australians in Macau are necessarily ambassadors for our country of citizenship, so I will always strive in my own way to help the relationship between the Chinese and Australian people to be one of friendship, cooperation and mutual benefit.
I find the current relationship between China and Australia hugely disappointing and totally counter-productive for Australia. China has been Australia’s number one trading partner and the mining, education and food industries, just to name three, have enjoyed the benefit of doing enormous business with China in recent decades. I can only hope that somehow in years to come relations between the two countries might return to the friendly state they once were.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew W Scott
9 March 2022
