Our Desk | Assumption – The Science of the ‘Ignorant’

Renato Marques

In our daily lives, there are many things that we “take for granted” or assume will turn out in a particular way. This applies to work as well as our private lives. Most of the time, these assumptions are based on our experiences about how things work and what kind of outcome we can expect from a certain person or entity.

In these cases, assumptions are based on life experience and grounded in fact, so they are safe bets.

In other cases, assumptions in their pure form can create nightmarish situations – a “science of the ignorant,” if you will – where people jeopardize their work by assuming things they know nothing about and make no effort to research.

Several weeks ago, the Secretary-General of the government’s Talents Development Committee (CDT), Sou Chio Fai, said during the TDM Chinese “Macau Forum” radio program that he hopes “[Macau] students do not think just about working for the government after having studied in Portugal”, suggesting that these students should also consider other jobs. Sou is also the Director of the Tertiary Education Services Office (GAES) and served many years as the Director of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ).

I’m not sure what he meant by these words, but it appears he was suggesting that bilingual local professionals should look for jobs in the private sector and not just in government.

At first glance, such statements seem strange. Firstly, the government itself has widely advertised the need for bilingual professionals, as there is a significant shortage of translators, interpreters and other bilingual technicians. This shortage alone led to the creation of several committees and is the reason why the government funds students to study abroad: to improve their language proficiency.

Secondly, these committees themselves seem to ignore the real market circumstances of the private sector, especially regarding salary and other benefits.

It is no surprise for me to say that the public sector pays, on average, between 60 to 75 percent more than the private sector for the same job in Macau.

The public sector has also on average 13 to 15 additional holidays each year, in addition to annual leave, paid holidays, overtime pay, retirement provisions, health care benefits, and other perks.

So my question is, why would these highly skilled professional residents choose to work in the private sector where not only are they paid significantly less, have fewer holidays, benefits, reduced career progression, but also face a higher risk of unemployment by contract termination, company closure, or changes in business direction?

I wonder which country/region Dr Sou has been living in? What kind of information comes to his desktop? Is he just speaking about utopian ideas of how a perfect society should work, as happens too often in this kind of consultative committees?

I am honestly confused. I do not want to believe that such high ranked official and so-called “expert” on education has so little knowledge of reality.