Our Desk: Shallow politics

João Pedro Lau

The Executive Council (ExCo) announced last week that the Macau government will be building 28,000 public housing units and 4,000 private residential apartments in zone A as a part of the future reclamation area. Chief Executive Chui Sai On followed this announcement as he later went and “inspected” the zone remotely from a pedestrian overpass on Avenida da Amizade.
After a long delay (presumably because Mr Chui wanted to wait in his car before the rain was less heavy), we finally got to hear him repeat what some of the other officials had previously said and answer some of our questions.
One of our media colleagues asked Chui whether this announcement to adjust the planning for zone A was a show, and the CE responded by rejecting this claim.
Despite his denial, some of us have already made up our minds and see all these announcements as the CE’s way to fight for his re-election. I also believe that there will be other “good policies” coming out soon to boost his reputation and create a more “harmonious” environment prior to the election day on August 31.
If you go back to all the speeches and announcements made by the government officials regarding the zone A planning adjustments, you can’t actually find any real substance being presented. It is indeed just two numbers and nothing more. Even the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works Lau Si Io has admitted that it is a tough job for his colleagues to actualize this 32,000-apartment goal.
This kind of policy announcement – an announcement not followed by a concrete plan and analysis – is, I have to point out, disappointing. This indicates that the government has started to pick up the style of shallow politics, reducing some important and complicated political ideas or arguments into simple wording or choices, and making policies on the run.
Why is the government playing shallow politics now? Like I said, it is just a show.
Some may ask what is so bad about shallow politics as, “at least they got something done.” However, people do not realize how seriously wrong it can be if things are just simplified like this.
Take the housing issue in Macau as an example. It is not only about how many public housing units are built and where they are built. The issue also involves the distribution of land resources and the regulation on issues such as land development, property transaction and renting.
However, what the government has done is reduce everything to numbers. It seems to think that if it can provide the public with a certain amount of apartments, that should suffice.
Of course, it is better to have more houses than none at all. And the ExCo announcement does give people hope. Nevertheless, it also gives people the wrong signal that it is the solution and there are no other problems that the government has to resolve, which is obviously not true.
Shallow politics is only giving a temporary and usually unreliable solution to important political issues. It is like giving a painkiller to a cancer patient and telling them it is the only treatment.
Instead of accepting it, people should push the government into engaging into a more in-depth debate regarding the issues, which I think is the only way of finding a real and permanent solution.