New Macau skeptical of taxi recording

From left, Ng Kuok Cheong, Sulu Sou and an unidentified ANM member

The New Macau Association (ANM) believes that the measures proposed by the government to tackle issues with the local taxi industry, including the introduction of entrapment operations and the installation of recording devices inside taxis, may cause privacy issues, and may not be effective.
In a press conference yesterday, ANM president Sulu Sou Ka Hou said that while the public and the taxi industry seem to support the idea of installing recording devices in taxis, the group is skeptical because of privacy concerns.
“To some extent, many residents and members of the industry think that [installing recorders in taxis] can protect the rights of both [the driver and the passengers],” he said.
“Considering the issue of privacy, however, (…) the thing now is that the relevant data such as voice recordings will be uploaded to a server in the Transport Bureau (DSAT). Will there be a situation that the data could be abused by, let’s say, the police and other government departments to target a particular person or a particular issue?” he said.
Sulu Sou pointed out that he couldn’t see any details about the transmission and assessment of the data in the public consultation document. As a result, ANM decided to neither support nor reject the proposal at this stage.
Moreover, the ANM believes that recording is a passive way of enforcing the law. “To record the whole city is a good thing for law enforcers because they have much less work to do. However, I think that recording is a passive law enforcement measure,” he declared.
Mr Sou suggested that the authorities should instead be active and dispatch officials to the “blackspots” where taxi irregularities usually take place.
Furthermore, Sulu Sou claimed that they are skeptical about the effectiveness of both the entrapment and recording because they believe that there is a group of taxi drivers who are “semi-triad” which the two proposed measures would not be able to topple.
“The government has given a false impression to the public that entrapment is the magic solution. Let’s try it then. But we are skeptical about its effectiveness,” he said.
Additionally, the ANM president said that he was glad to see the establishment of groups such as the Macau Taxi Passengers’ Association.
“It is a good thing whether it’s the taxi drivers or passengers who set up groups. This is good for the civil development of society,” he said.
“We can analyze the opinions that are already gathered by these groups to see the trends. I believe that if there are people who are willing to come out and express opinions on behalf of taxi passengers, I am very glad to see that,” he said.
Sulu Sou added that taxi passengers, both locals and tourists, have been voicing their discontent for a long period of time. However, their opinions were not organized, meaning that the government could not grasp the extent that the problem had reached.
Apart from discussing the proposals for entrapment and recording, ANM has put forward several ideas to improve the taxi industry. They called for the government to keep the bidding price of taxi licenses to a reasonable level so that they will cease to become investment tools.
The group also believes that that the Public Security Police should be given the authority to enforce the taxi related laws and regulations. Harsher penalties are also part of their recommendations.