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The law is the law and our public officials should know that better than anyone else. If they can’t manage developers, they are not doing a good job and should be dismissed
new use decided. How is that so diffi cult to understand? The core of the problem is a fear of
confrontation, which leads the government to occupy an intolerably fragile position. It leads to a government that appears
to show its strength against the powerless, opposing small businesses, handfuls of demonstrators and acting on smaller issues, but when facing more formidable opponents, public offi cials act as though they are afraid. They sit and stare at each other, whispering imperceptible words. They retreat until a new directive is issued, allowing them to come back with a new threat that, again, rarely materialises into action.
End the illegalities The Bureau of Telecommunications Regulation provides another example of toothless behaviour. The telecommunications bureau has been subjected to needless ridicule in its dealings with the providers of public antenna broadcasts. Macau Cable TV has a concession
contract, a monopoly, and from the beginning has been affected by these unlicensed operators that simply steal television broadcasts. Theirs is an illegal business. Tired of fi ghting a situation that the
government should have resolved, the former owner of Cable TV sold it because it stopped earning money. This was a clear example where the government should have stepped in. The current Cable TV owner was itself
a provider of public antenna broadcasts, breaking the same laws that it now wants others to stop. It is Macau at its best. Despite lacking the moral high ground to call for an end to the broadcasts, the truth is that according to the law, the owner of Cable TV is right. The telecommunications bureau is
not, and never was, right. It hides behind an unexplainable “tradition” in order to escape the subject, acting as if it is none of its business. “They’re stealing but since it’s been done for many years, then it’s really not stealing,” is the bureau’s line. Well, perhaps it is cultural. A culture of
paper tigers that shy away from the legal and social responsibilities that they are sworn to uphold. We urgently need to restore the law,
reform the institutions at fault and make the government’s actions credible. To fail to do so is to perpetuate gross mistakes and to prevent Fernando Chui Sai On’s government from reaching its higher goals. We wonder who would want that.
OCTOBER 2010
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