Gov’t fails to exercise measures with similar standards, says Agnes Lam

Lawmaker Agnes Lam expressed that the government had acted as though there were different standards for events hosted by the government and private entities.
The Times asked the lawmaker about the banning of an environment-related public event by a non-government environmental protection group reported yesterday,
“I respect the government’s measurements on Covid-19 in general. However, regarding trash collection activities, I have learned from the government promotion materials that the Environmental Protection Bureau is hosting a similar activity on the same weekend. So, I do not understand why the one proposed by the social group was denied by the police,” Lam said. “The problem here is that it looks like the government is not exercising measures with the same standards. There is not enough justification for why one activity is allowed [while] another one is not allowed.”
The lawmaker is known to support several environmental causes. If the government needs to implement restrictive measures due to Covid-19, the implementation needs to be consistent and the government should not adopting a double standard. Otherwise, “such measures will be easily be seen only as an excuse for the government to stop some activities that they do not like,” she said.
Lam also noted that the current situation in Macau is that there have been no new cases of the disease for over two months. This has given way to the loosening of some of restrictions, and she is hoping that the government can revisit those measures and clearly explain which ones will be maintained and why.
For some public activities, like those related to trash collection, “it would be good if the government issued instructions on how to operate them in a way to protect participants, and at the same time, allowing the [groups] to resume the activities soon, following such instructions.”
A series of ongoing activities organized by the group Macau for Waste Reduction, which is dedicated to waste collection for recycling, have been disrupted by the police authorities on Tuesday.