December 17, 1999	atimes.com

China Doubt, nostalgia as Macau nears handover By Clara Gomes MACAU - ''Most of the population is Chinese and I think they are happy to have a Chinese administration,'' Catarina Mok, a journalist in Macau, says of the atmosphere here as the clock ticks toward Macau's return to Chinese sovereignty on December 19. ''But what is necessary is that the next government thinks on behalf of the citizens of Macau, Chinese, Macanese and Portuguese, instead of just following China's interests,'' she goes on. ''I would not like to see my children having to abandon Macau,'' she said of the enclave that China says will for the next 50 years remain the same free-wheeling place that it has been under Portuguese rule. This is the same formula that the mainland adopted with regard to Hong Kong, which was returned to Chinese rule in July 1997. Also similar to that agreement, Macau has a Basic Law as a mini-constitution that was approved by the National People's Congress of China in 1993. Mok's remarks reflect some concern about Macau's future as an enclave of 430,000 people with a unique mix of history and ethnic groups. More than half of Macau's people were born in mainland China. The Portuguese who have lived here for some time share some apprehensions as well, much of it tinged with nostalgia coming at the formal end of 442 years of Portugal's rule. ''I don't have the heart to see the (Portuguese) flag go down. It is something that means a lot to me,'' says Alberto Alecrim, 67, a journalist who worked for local radio for many years. Alecrim, who arrived in Macau in 1964, will leave for Portugal just before the handover but plans to come back in some months. ''It is a difficult moment for all Portuguese and Chinese that love Macau. I believe only the Chinese that came recently will cry the slogans that the New Chinese News Agency spread around like cheering 'the end of the era of humiliation','' he explains. ''All the other citizens will feel sorrow in this moment of separation,'' he says. After all, Alecrim says, Macau has always been a port of shelter for many Chinese and Portuguese. Jose Manuel Lopes, a nurse in the public hospital, says he hopes Macau does not lose its multi-ethnic flavor when it becomes the Special Administrative Region of Macau after December 19. In Macau, he observes, ''the Portuguese adapted to the Chinese and vice-versa. In very few other Asian settings will you find that kind of ambience.'' ''I will feel a knot in my throat when the flag goes down,'' says Gabriela Cesar, Macanese and the president of the Foundation for Cooperation and Development. ''Of course there is an agreement between states that needs to be kept but it is also the end of a Pacific Portuguese presence. I don't believe there is a single Chinese or Macanese connected with this land that will not feel a certain nostalgia in that hour.'' Portugal's red and green flag will lowered for the last time at midnight of December 19, at rites with Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio in attendance. A few hours later, Sampaio will leave Macau. At 2 am, the new administration of Macau, headed by the new chief executive, banker Edmund Ho, will be sworn into office. But despite the mix of feelings by ethnic Chinese, Macanese and Portuguese however, not everyone thinks the handover by itself is something to worry about. As Mok herself explains, ''Some people are frightened, but others just have no special feeling about the handover. They will wait and see.'' In fact, many residents seem more worried about everyday issues - continued crime by the triads and the sagging economy - than the handover itself. More than 80 people have been killed in the last three years and hundreds kidnapped in the wake of gangland violence that began in 1997, when triads escaping crackdowns in Hong Kong and Taiwan along with mainland triads engaged local groups in a tussle for turf, and gambling profits. The violence grew especially as casino profits fell last year, as the enclave was affected by the Asian crisis and GDP slowed by 6.8 percent in 1998. Macau depends on 60 percent of its revenues on gambling, which as part of the agreement with the Chinese, will stay even after December 19 and even if in China gambling is illegal. There is little choice anyway but to keep this industry, given its huge economic role that Chinese leaders know full well. But if China knows the industry has to stay, it has also been saying it will deal strictly with gangland violence, for which the Portuguese administration has come under fire. The concern about crime is such that gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, who has run Macau's 10 casinos for nearly four decades, was quoted as assuring recently that Macau will become ''very peaceful and sleepy again'' because the triads would not want to deal with the communist leaders and capital punishment, which Macau heretofore does not have. Indeed, Mok says the lack of the outgoing government's inability to control triad crime is its biggest failure. ''The corruption of the police and the lack of a strategy on the part of the government are the causes,'' offers Mok, who is also a lecturer at the University of Macau. The lack of transparency of the government does not help, she says. ''The citizens are never informed on how it is dealing with the problems.'' Many residents who welcome Chinese rule do so in large part of the expectation that Beijing will deal firmly with crime. In Portugal's case, commentators say it tried to assert itself by convicting Wan Kuok Koi, also called ''Broken Tooth'', on November 23 for charges ranging from triad leadership to money laundering to phone-tapping. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail, although Wan had always avoided such a fate before, and critics claim the trial was a ''political'' one. Also on November 23, Chinese officials across the border in Zhu hai executed a triad leader and his accomplices for crimes committed in Macau, in a move many saw as sending a signal that it would crack down on gangland violence. But Gary Ngay, president of the Sino-Latin Foundation, believes the problem of crime is not only about Macau. ''The regional government of Guangzhou is infiltrated by triads,'' he claims. ''That is why the province has a new governor: the other one was accused of corruption for mingling with triads.'' Ngay, who came to Macau after working for the Chinese government and who was condemned to forced labor for being an intellectual, also says it is time Macau looked beyond gambling as the main source of revenue. ''Sixty percent of the government's budget comes from gambling. The economy has not been not diversified. If all our industry transferred to China, what would happen?'' he asks. Looking back, analysts see much room for improvement that was lost, and say this may well be a key factor in determining how the enclave fares in the future. ''We made Macau a free and open market where there is competition and discipline, but we did not get many results when we tried to diversify the economy,'' admitted Gabriela Cesar, former director of the economics department and president of the Foundation for Development and Cooperation. (Inter Press Service)

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