Letter to the Editor | Taxis: Fishing is starting to creep back

Dear Editor,

I read with great interest your article entitled “Raimundo do Rosário praises new Transport Bureau head’s ‘courage’” in yesterday’s Macau Daily Times. Over the past 12 months the Macau Taxi Passenger Association, through its official Facebook group Macau Taxi Driver Shame, has at various times been critical of the former Transport Bureau (DSAT) Director Mr Wong Wan. Of course the criticisms were never personal and we wish Mr Wong well in his future endeavors.
It is also very heartwarming to hear the new DSAT Director Mr Lam pledge to “do his job well” and “listen to citizens’ voices more” as well as acknowledge that it is “important … to listen to more opinions from different parts of society”. The Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Raimundo do Rosário, is absolutely correct when he admits the DSAT top job is a challenging, stressful and difficult one. I’m glad to hear Mr Lam has already steeled himself for criticism, for surely he will be receiving it given the shambolic nature of Macau’s transport system. I can assure both Mr Rosário and Mr Lam that the MTPA will only be criticizing their decisions if we genuinely feel they are poor. We will be very quick to praise them when they make positive decisions that in our opinion are for the good of Macau society. It is great to hear Mr Lam say, “I think that when one is serving citizens as a civil servant, it’s legitimate to receive their criticisms.” Let’s see how that plays out in practice.
Make no bones about it they both have tough but incredibly important jobs. It was very encouraging to hear Mr Rosário acknowledge that Macau has a taxi service “that needs to improve its service quality in order to have a positive impact on Macau’s image”. He is absolutely correct. Since Mr Rosário took office Macau’s taxi problems have been massively ameliorated, but the job is not yet done. Fishing is starting to creep back, with our estimate of Macau’s fishing prevalence rising from around 10% to around 15% in the last month or two. But that is still a massive improvement on the abysmal 85% fishing prevalence we estimated at the height of the problem in 2014.
Lets hope with new leadership at the helm, Macau’s transportation woes can improve. We wish Mr Lam the best of luck in his new position.

Andrew W Scott
President
Macau Taxi Passengers Association