Rear Window | Still room for improvement

Severo Portela

As the dust settles in the aftermath of the unpredictable May Day civil and industrial actions, at least partly, Macau dares to read the new trends coming out of the all-gaming 2015 Labor Day demonstrations. 13 casino workers’ trade unions of a sort took to the streets. And pardon the hyperbolic style.
First of all, we have to highlight the shift of the pro-democracy New Macau Association, from its double persona of senior legislators and new generation management to a more social agenda. Legislative Assembly veteran lawmakers, Ng Kwok Cheong and Au Kam San, and the NMA political leadership of Sulu Sou and Jason Chao adjusted themselves to the local new normal. Ng is now calling explicitly for a freeze, not a ban, indeed, of the universal suffrage as the basic framework for the development of MSAR’s political system, and further ado on the pro-democracy path; Au Kam San is no longer shy about refusing any reference, intrusion, or contamination from Hong Kong’s political drive spilling to the other side of the Pearl River Delta. The NMA’s youth wing, that is to say the new leadership of the pro-democracy side, goes even further, given its profile in Macau’s political activism these recent years. Local [political] star Jason Chao, apparently seasoned by a tour of initiation, admits he is ready to let go of the “explosive” issues to follow a more social agenda; for instance, the promotion of a sexual harassment bill.
We believe this shift to a neutral agenda to be not only realpolitik inspired, but also a decisive bet, putting aside the conceptual antagonism between conservatives and democrats. This way, he brings the political interchange to a common language, and operates from within normal-speak, which allows NMA to challenge and spin the raw authoritative conservative arguments. For example, we refer to the never ending reference to science and the never fulfilled idea of the maxim ‘there is always room for improvement’.
However, what is important NOW is that the democrats are granting the government all the time and space it needs to handle the pains of the decreasing gaming sector, from each and every angle, and at the same time NMA is giving a political sign that the narrative built around any threat from the unsettling effects of the local pro-democracy movement is now void. And from now on there cannot be an excuse to insist on old school antics to protect old and new money.
Fortunately, the Secretary for Finance and Economy, Lionel Leong, was called to bring the casino industry to a soft landing in-between the rise and too-big-to-fail libretto of the gaming sector. And this is an understatement.
Whether we call it new normal, or something other, the adjustment is happening as the terms of the so-called mid-term evaluation or review are disclosed. Now, all parties know that there are no instructions from Beijing regarding the three concessionaires and three sub-concessionaires evaluation; that this process is not linked to a hypothetical seventh licence; that the non-gaming and social responsibility issues are the deciding factors. Now, everybody knows.
What we do not know is the ratio between the redemptive powers of the mass market as a mitigating factor of the 20 billion new normal and the actual potential of the first class new projects to increase the number of visitors belonging to that class of spenders. But as we all know, this industry challenges our perceptions of fact and fiction.