Our Desk | On the tenacity of protesters

Daniel Beitler

One has to admire the persistence of the Pearl Horizon unit buyers in the face of ever decreasing signs of settlement. A total of 250 residents took to the streets on Sunday in just the latest demonstration from the group that, much to Polytec’s (and probably the government’s) displeasure, just won’t go away.
Of course, that number is far fewer than the reported 1,400 that protested in December, which probably included family and friends of the buyers – but it is nevertheless admirable given the tendency of issues in Macau to be swept under the rug or quickly forgotten.
The tenacity of these protestors is perhaps unsurprising. As the Times reported, many of the buyers have remortgaged their properties or taken loans to be able to finance the down payments on the apartments yet to be built or completed.
For some, these loans have produced an unsustainable financial situation, so protestors are justifiably angry.
To add to this, Polytec really have no reason to settle the dispute quickly. A cynic might note that the longer Polytec and the courts battle it out, the worse the financial situation will become for small unit investors. As time passes investors will become more desperate and more willing to settle unfavorably.
But while protestors are angry and have kept up the pressure on the developer for years, it is not as if the demonstrators have nothing to lose.
As they have become increasingly infuriated with the slow pace of decision-making in Macau, they have begun to turn to more physical forms of protest. On at least two occasions a police presence has been required, whether to meet small unit investors occupying the outside of the developer’s headquarters in Macau, or to forcibly remove those who were planning to disrupt a company meeting for executives.
Protestors have “scuffled” with the police, and at least two people have been arrested, although they were discharged on the same day.
Meanwhile the government’s response has been typical; they confiscated the land plot, issued strong words of condemnation, and then… put the issue on the backburner. They now say that the issue of the land confiscation is “in the hands of the courts.”
According to the Commission Against Corruption, the decision to confiscate a developer’s plot is “entirely at the discretion of the Public Administration,” and not mandated by the often-cited Land Law.
Far from solving the problem, the government’s decision to confiscate the land, which came as a surprise to nobody (except apparently Polytec), may have made the situation worse.
For whatever reason Polytec was unable to complete the development of the Pearl Horizon site, if they had retained the land, a settlement might have been possible. The value of that sort of asset – especially in Macau – could be offset against the compensation due to small unit buyers, and the company ought to have complied if the courts mandated it.
This is especially true given that the developer is based in Hong Kong, where the in-the-works extradition treaty is being ironed out and could, according to some reports, be applied retroactively on the basis of dual-legality.
But without the land, Polytec is in the red too. And they might fight twice as hard to salvage every pataca they can from the investment. Under the current circumstances, nobody is a winner and nobody is prepared to concede, so the demonstrations are likely to persist.
We can at least admire the persistence of protestors. Unlike many things in Macau that are swept under the rug, Pearl Horizon buyers look set to stay. They can’t afford not to. Daniel Beitler