AL Plenary | ‘PRC’ should be imprinted on more Macau travel documents, lawmaker suggests

Lawmaker Mak Soi Kun has urged the government to engrave the name of the state, the People’s Republic of China, on more types of identity documents of Macau residents.

Mak voiced his suggestion during yesterday’s Legislative Assembly (AL). He began by pointing out that a few surveys on the youth of Macau’s sense of national identity showed that 72 percent of Macau students identify themselves as “Chinese”, whereas the remainder “have clearly not understood their Chinese identity.”

“At the same time, they [the surveys] indicate that Macau youth’s sense of national identity as well as their knowledge of the state’s history need to be strengthened,” declared Mak.

“The SAR has been returned to the motherland for more than 18 years already. Among all the identity documents held by Macau residents, only the passport currently marks People’s Republic of China,” Mak observed.

He further noted that “People’s Republic of China” is not inscribed on Macau residents’ ID cards, nor on their Home Visit Permit documents.

“The first documents the young generation comes into contact with are the ID card and the home permit document. The information attached to their documents will accompany them while they grow up, and will directly affect the acquisition of their own identity,” said Mak. “If these documents do not exhibit clear symbols of the state, it might lead the young generation to naturally and firmly believe that they are Chinese from Macau, as opposed to letting them be aware that they are indeed the Macau people from China.”

“In order to better train and enhance the sense of ‘Loving the Country and Loving Macau’ in the next generation, and as suggested by many residents, the SAR government should communicate with the related state’s organization in order to study the feasibility of adding the words “People’s Republic of China” to Macau residents’ ID cards and Home Visit Permits […] so as to try to allow the Macau SAR’s residents to own and use documents with the state’s symbol [People’s Republic of China], thus allowing the young generation to realize that they are Macau people from China,” said Mak Soi Kun.

Birth subsidies to increase in April

The AL has passed a bill proposing an increase in the birth subsidies during yesterday’s plenary meeting.

According to the bill’s provision, civil servants’ birth subsidies will grow 60 percent based on the index 100 of the Public Administration indices table. The birth subsidy will be fixed at MOP5,100 once the law enters into force. 

The birth subsidy granted by the the Social Security Fund to residents working for the private sector will be raised from MOP1,957 to MOP5,000. That means there will be a difference of MOP100 in the subsidies granted to the public and private sectors. 

The government intends to encourage residents to have more children in order to boost Macau’s birth rate.

Since the bill did not stir many opinions among the lawmakers, yesterday’s AL meeting ended comparatively early. A few lawmakers, including Wong Kit Cheng and José Pereira Coutinho, voiced their opinions.

Wong said that “there are two systems now, and the differences [concerning the public and private systems] will appear in the future.”

Wong suggests that the government establish one universal system to ensure an equal social security fund for birth subsidies in order to “avoid bigger differences.”

However, Coutinho thinks that the bill is not enough to encourage residents to have more children. In order to foster Macau’s birth rate, the lawmaker considers that more developments within such aspects as breastfeeding, housing and healthcare will be necessary.

The Secretary for Administration and Justice, Sonia Chan, replied to the lawmakers, saying that the “social security regime and civil servants’ [regime] are two different regimes. The social security regime gives residents some basic protections besides the welfare that the employers [already] give them. This is a double security [for the employees].”

According to Chan, the government has done “abundant work” to promote breastfeeding. She hopes that the government’s departments can promote and develop speeds of breastfeeding rooms.

After the bill was passed, Mak Soi Kun gave his opinion. “There is an argument in society [that questions] whether civil servants and residents will bear children for a few thousand patacas,” Mak said. He also suggested the government follow up on civil servants’ birth rate regularly.

The bill will come into effect on April 1.

On the lawmakers’ agenda

TOURISM CAPACITY Ho Ion Sang “once again urged the government” to manage and make use of Macau’s current resources scientifically while building additional tourism and leisure facilities and improving infrastructures to respond to society’s concerns about Macau’s tourism capacity.  Several lawmakers, including Kou Hoi In and Chui Sai Peng, voiced their concerns over Macau’s tourism capacity. Their opinions addressed the exploration of more tourism products and the distribution of tourists across different districts.

SAR RESIDENTS’ EXCLUSIVE CHECKPOINT Leong Sun Iok hopes that the Macau government can negotiate with the mainland government to reopen exclusive checkpoints for Hong Kong and Macau residents at the Gongbei border gate. “Many residents complained that, since the Gongbei port cancelled the exclusive manual checkpoints for Hong Kong and Macau residents, [Macau] residents have to share checkpoints with many mainland tourists, which has increased the time [it takes for Macau residents] to cross the border],” said Leong, adding “especially during holidays, division of the human traffic flow should be enhanced to reduce the impact of crowds of tourists on Macau residents.”

TOURISM SERVICE Lei Chan U criticized what he characterized as Macau’s poor tourism services, including taxi services and restaurant services. “Especially the taxi phenomenon, which has drawn society’s attention, despite it being difficult to solve effectively. […] Even though residents and tourists alike are gradually getting used to the additional service fees during the holidays, it is obviously unreasonable to add an additional fee when the service fee has already been charged,” said Lei.  Besides the above careless conduct within taxi and restaurant services, residents and tourists have criticized Macau’s service quality for a long time.