Ten years ago, the elegant cobbled streets of Macau’s Tap Seac Square were filled with people calling for change and government accountability—the pinnacle of the former Portuguese colony’s political awakening.
Now, as Macau prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover to China this week, the city’s pro-democracy movement is over and the 2014 protests are but a memory.
“Macau’s civil society is relatively docile and docile, that’s the truth,” said Au Kam-san, 67, a primary school teacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy lawmakers.
“But if that were completely true, we wouldn’t have different voices. Our young people have their own views.”
Au entered politics after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and campaigned for years on issues such as livelihood, corruption and electoral reform.
That day in May 2014, he helped organize a 20,000-strong protest against benefits for retired civil servants, leading to a rare government concession.
Today, Macau’s public protests are but a memory after Beijing launched a sweeping crackdown over the past five years that ousted opposition lawmakers and clamped down on free speech.
Before the anniversary, several Macao democrats told AFP they had been warned not to make critical remarks in public.
“There is a strong sense of repression, and the whole civil society has been silenced,” Au said.
– Methods of participation
Macau returned to Chinese control in 1999 under a “One Country, Two Systems” framework that promises greater autonomy, a separate legal system and stronger protections for civil liberties than on the mainland.
But unlike neighboring Hong Kong, Macau was never offered any guarantees of wider democratization in the constitution, its mini-constitution.
Jorge Rangel, a minister in Macau’s last colonial administration, said democracy was not a priority when he and his Chinese colleagues drafted the constitution.
“But I think at least the Macau members and some of the mainland members of the Basic Law (drafting committee) believed that it would be beneficial for Macau to have people participate very actively,” said Rangel, 81.
“My vision of ‘One country, two systems’ is that we have… a strong, active, independent civil society.”
Macau’s 690,000 residents today have no say in the city’s leader, who is chosen by a 400-strong pro-establishment committee.
Less than half of the legislators are elected by popular vote, and the pro-democracy camp has never won more than 15 percent of the seats.
Unable to change the system from within, activists in the 2010s—including new faces like Jason Chao and Scott Chiang—explored ways to involve the public, such as maintaining the tradition of the annual Tiananmen events.
Chao, 38, said the activists also tried to spread progressive values, such as trying to get “conservative” Macau to talk about LGBTQ rights, an uphill battle that yielded no clear victory.
In 2014, he held an online referendum over strong opposition from Beijing’s Macau representatives, asking the public if they supported universal suffrage for the city’s leader.
Just over 95 percent of the 8,700 respondents answered yes.
“I felt (the results) were quite remarkable, and I’m grateful that my team and I stood up to the pressure to pull it off,” Chao said, adding that the feat cannot be repeated now.
– “Seeds” in winter –
Even in 2019, China’s leaders praised Macao as a model of patriotism and stability – but Hong Kong was rocked by huge and violent protests, Macao was not spared the backlash.
In the 2021 general election, Chiang was one of the pro-democracy candidates who were rejected for not supporting the constitution or being “disloyal” to Macau.
“Some people claimed at the time that we were moderate, different from the radicals in Hong Kong. In retrospect, of course, this was completely irrelevant,” Chiang, 43, said.
Chao and Chiang have left the country and say they have no plans to return. Remaining Democrats see little cause for optimism.
Macao’s next leader, Sam Hou-fai, was the top judge, and one of his 2019 rulings massively restricted freedom of assembly, said Ieong Meng-u, an academic at the University of Macau.
“On paper, Macao’s laws on assembly and demonstrations are the most pro-freedom of expression in the Chinese territory… (but) since the announcement of the decision, there have been no approved demonstrations or demonstrations in Macao,” Ieong said.
After deciding not to run again in 2021, Au, a former lawmaker, candidly assessed his camp’s legacy.
“In terms of the political system, we did not achieve any change… I admit that we have not achieved anything in the fight for democracy,” he told AFP.
But he said activists have changed civil society for the better: “Even though we are in a harsh winter, if there are changes in the external environment, these seeds in Macau may still have a chance to germinate.”
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