Labor rights advocate reportedly stalked after giving notification of May 1 protest

A local workers’ rights advocate claimed that he had been stalked after giving notification of a May 1 protest, and felt persecuted.

Last week, on the sidelines of an association event, Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak disclosed that notification of the protest had been received by the police. However, Wong stated that “the organizer has withdrawn the notification before the first meeting.”

In accordance with Macau laws, protest organizers must notify authorities of their events, but technically, the government has no right to veto their plans.

In the past three years, the police have banned protests and a recyclable collection campaign due to “health concerns,” although incumbent Health Bureau director Alvis Lo was permitted to stage a singing event at the Ruins of St Paul’s on May 4, 2021.

When questioned by the press whether the protest’s cancellation spells less freedom in Macau, Wong underlined that the rights are protected by laws and “the government could not force people to stage protests.”

Over the weekend, workers’ rights icon Wong Wai Man emerged on the scene and stated that he was the organizer of the cancelled protest.

Dubbed “Captain Macau” by the local Cantonese-speaking community, Wong is a workers’ rights advocate who has already been active for well over a decade. He is specifically concerned with rights for construction bar-benders.

As of press time, a record of his association was not found on the Government Printing Office’s website. The name that he used to refer to his association is Macau Construction Bar-benders’ Trade Union.

Wong disclosed that after declaring his intention to stage a protest, he “suffered phenomenal pressure.” He also expressed his regrets for “letting grassroots residents down.”

He said that he was “both monitored and stalked” after submitting the notification of the protest on Apr. 10. He blamed the police for these oppressive tactics.

In the same evening, he received a call that accused his association headquarters of involvement with Falun Gong, a group identified by Beijing as a religious cult. According to him, he immediately headed back to the headquarters in Areia Preta from Coloane and found four people playing mahjong.

Police officers on the site, meanwhile, asked him for his personal details, to fill out an entry permission form and sign some documents.

“In the next few days, there were up to eight plainclothes police officers on the peripheral of Kin Wa Building, every day and every night,” he said. Kin Wa Building is where his association headquarters are located.

“They followed me wherever I went,” Wong stated. “On Apr. 15, I was also tailed by another car while driving around a roundabout.”

The following three days, he said, he turned his cellphone off and did not go out. Afterwards, he added, the police started contacting him via WeChat, persuading him not to stage the protest.

“I was told that my protest would be highjacked by another agenda,” he said. In the end, he decided to withdraw his notification.

After Wong’s interview, the Office of Wong Sio Chak issued a statement, underlining its “concerns” with the matter. The Judiciary Police have also been mobilized to commence an investigation into the accusations, the office added.

Wong appeared over the weekend to present a letter to the Transport Bureau (DSAT) regarding repetitive road works and poor road network design on the periphery of the Pearl of the Orient roundabout.