Macao’s parliamentary deputy, José Pereira Coutinho, said in an interview with Lusa that he has doubts about whether there will continue to be job opportunities in the territory for the Portuguese, as happened in the past.

“Nothing has changed in terms of the policy for the Portuguese to come here to work,” he stressed. But, “will there be work for the Portuguese to come to Macao?” He asked, to conclude: “That is the big question”.

The economic crisis is at stake, triggered by the restrictions due to the pandemic in a territory that follows Beijing’s zero-case policy, but also the departure of qualified Portuguese personnel, who are not replaced by others from Portugal, but by local personnel or staff from within the country. China, he stressed.

“I am concerned (…) the arrival of, for example, more medical specialists, more lawyers, more deputies [Ministério Público]more judges for Macao,” he explained.

“When I see in the Official Gazette the departure of one or another of these gentlemen who are contributing their personal specialty in these areas, and they are not replaced, then it hurts me, because in reality it is less one, more a loss,” he lamented.

Even so, a former councilor of the Portuguese communities and the only Portuguese deputy in the Legislative Assembly highlighted the “excellent work” of the “Government of Portugal, specifically the consul general” in this area, “saying that Portugal has qualified personnel to make these contributions”. .

It welcomes the cooperation protocols signed between Portugal and Macao in the field of education, especially in the field of higher education, but there is still “concern when vacancies in Portuguese studies departments are not filled with Portuguese professors” in the territory, which has an increase in the unemployment rate was registered, with many deputies, associations and authorities defending a priority policy of local recruitment.

Pereira Coutinho maintained that, for this reason, “it is necessary to do work behind the scenes” and that “this work is the responsibility of the authorities (…) of Portugal, the delegates, the general consul and also the councillors.” of the Portuguese community, who are doing an excellent job”.

The deputy said he was convinced that the rules of the pandemic will not last forever and that this will not be, therefore, the fact that will determine the abandonment of the territory in the future. ????????[Mas] I see it from another perspective: it is whether job opportunities will continue to exist as in the past. So yes, it worries me a lot, when they don’t replace people in the areas that I just mentioned, ”he emphasized.

“When a Portuguese leaves, it is clear that they do not care about replacing him with another Portuguese, to make a difference,” a reality that risks turning Macao into another city in the interior of China, he warned, without warning the differentiating status of multiculturalism.

“This human patrimony must be maintained and there, in fact, we are worrying a little because I don’t know if it is negligence or also because there is a lot of demand to fill vacancies in the public service. In Macao everyone wants to work in the civil service. And now more, because the income of the casinos is going down, ”he argued.

Despite being convinced of a short-term change in the restrictions due to the pandemic and the elimination of mandatory quarantines in hotels, which he has been defending in Parliament, the deputy admitted that the prevention policy has contributed to generating some discomfort in the community.

“There are so many Portuguese who have not seen their parents for years. Three years and such. They have elderly parents. [Com] 80, 90 years. They have children in European universities with whom they have no personal contact, ”she stressed.

“All this added up makes some people feel psychological effects, especially those who watch television and see that the whole world returns to normal,” he summarized, to later express regret: “It is a pity that this pandemic has not facilitated the output of our competent authorities in the various areas. They haven’t been going abroad, I hope they go out, watch the world cup. [de futebol]???????? Nobody with a mask and we still wear a mask on the street ”.

Since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, Macau has recorded six deaths and just over 2,800 cases, the vast majority of which are asymptomatic.

As in mainland China, the authorities are committed to a zero case policy, based on the imposition of quarantines upon arrival in the territory, massive tests on the population and confinement.

It will be difficult for Macao to have a majority of democratically elected deputies

In the same interview with Lusa, the Portuguese deputy in the Macao Legislative Assembly (LA) said that it would be difficult in the future to have a majority of democratically elected parliamentarians in the Chinese special administrative region.

“Before the establishment of the Macao SAR [Região Administrativa Especial de Macau] It was a shame that it was not changed, so that the majority of the deputies of the Legislative Assembly (…) are directly elected,” he said.

“This was not the case in the past in the Portuguese administration, it was not the case after the establishment of the Macao SAR and up to the present date, and it will not be easy in the future to have a Legislative Assembly [com deputados] elected mostly by democratic vote”, said the parliamentarian, who in last year’s elections managed to turn his list into the third largest political force in AL, in elections marked by the exclusion of candidates linked to the pro-democracy camp.

The Legislative Assembly is made up of 33 deputies, of which 14 are directly elected by the population, 12 by indirect suffrage (through associations) and seven appointed by the Chief Executive of the former territory administered by Portugal.

On the other hand, Pereira Coutinho lamented that until today there is no “specific regime of [declaração] conflict of interests”.

“It’s a regime [em] that I have been working for the last 20 years in Macao to make things more transparent, to know who is who here in Macao, what is behind them, what are their responsibilities, what are their companies, what functions do they perform in certain associations ”, he explained.

The deputy affirmed that “there are deputies who do not even put their academic and professional qualifications there in their individual profile of the Legislative Assembly.”

And he insisted on his criticism: “Macau was always, in the past, under the Portuguese administration, a network of interests, of conflict of interests in its day to day. Why do people want to be a representative? Because it really makes life easier for the businessman, his commercial activity, and that’s how it always was in the past, under the Portuguese administration, and it continues to be so now”.

Affected by the economic crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic, Pereira Coutinho guaranteed that the population is aware of the money wasted by political leaders on megalomaniac projects, on “white elephants” that impact public coffers, especially when society unemployment is increasingly felt, especially youth unemployment, in a territory where the population is aging, where social contributions are lacking, where gambling income is not enough to cover expenses and where financial reserves are running out.

Although people live in what “continues to be the safest city in the world”, today there is increasing psychological pressure”, in a territory where the issue of housing has always been a big problem, but which has now been replaced by a “much more a more serious one”. In other words, he specified, unemployment, which also brought other adversities, some more local, others enhanced by the world crisis scenario, such as “inflation, the rise in prices and basic necessities, the loss of quality of life and power purchasing”. .

“And this has affected so much that it is impacting society with the number of suicides, the increase in people asking for food baskets,” he argued, noting that the increase in the number of suicides in Macau during the pandemic period has “ various causes”.

“We know that many of these causes have to do with family conflicts, the small size of the houses, part-time work, difficulties in paying amortizations, rents and alimony”, he listed, and maintained that “there are a series of problems that come from the extremely strict rules of the pandemic and that have meant that people (…) do not have enough income to overcome the difficulties ”.

Pereira Coutinho defended that it remains “to wait for the rules of the pandemic to be eliminated, for life to normalize” and that “there are more tourists, that more wealth is created through small and medium-sized companies” and that “Macau is increasingly less dependent (…) on gambling, according to what the Government has planned for the next ten years, and it will not be easy”, he admitted.