New Macau rallies at Ruins of St. Paul’s urging political reform

Members of the New Macau Association (NMA) initiated an assembly at the Ruins of St. Paul’s yesterday, criticizing the “small circle” CE election and demanding for political reform in 2015.
The campaign started at 11 a.m. yesterday after the official voting for the 4th Chief Executive of the Macau SAR finished at around 10:30 a.m.
Holding the assembly at the world-renowned Ruins of St. Paul’s, Ng Kuok Cheong, a lawmaker and NMA member, said that they were declaring their beliefs to the world.
“We Macau people demand universal suffrage on the election of the chief executive and Legislative Assembly reform. Kick out the small circle, and the collusion and tunneling it brings with it!” he stated.
Ng accused the CE of being elected within a small circle of representatives, followed by collusion between government and businessmen, as well as tunneling. “The land and housing problem has become Macau’s disaster.” He pointed out that Macau people “woke up” as opposed to closing their eyes and ignoring the disaster. “A case showing their awareness was the rally against the officials’ perks bill this May. But Macau people did not ‘wake up’ regarding the land granting with cheap prices.”
Participants were invited to share their opinions yesterday. A resident, Mr Choi, said that the livelihood issue is closely related to the political system. “With such a high GDP, people in Macau are living with difficulty,” he said. Choi demanded that every resident be allowed to vote for the CE and lawmakers.
Political commentator Anthony Wong Tung, who also attended the event, said: “This year we saw a series of social movements; they did not occur all of a sudden. Too much resentment has been accumulated, which could have been avoided. If we had conducted political reform when the gaming licenses opened in 2003, the MSAR government and pro-establishment camp could have had enough time to gradually and peacefully hand over their power. But they acted in the opposite way and even held onto their power more tightly.” Wong illustrated that the civil referendum was obstructed earlier by several departments, such as the Civil and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM), the police and the Office for Personal Data Protection.
Wong deems the next five years to be “definitely not optimistic” and thinks that they may hold more unrest. “They have no intention even for a small change via reform. (…) They are so afraid of such a small scale of referendum,” he said.
Protesters sang the Cantonese version of the song “Do You Hear the People Sing?” twice during the one-hour campaign, while chanting the slogans “Kick out the small circle!” and “Universal suffrage for the Chief Executive in 2019!” from time to time.
The event ended at noon, with Ng and other participants kicking a football with newly elected CE Chui Sai On’s photo on it, symbolizing the kicking of the “small circle election.”  GY