One country, two systems, one language

Fernando Ferreira

Macau, the first European colony in Asia (and also the last) gained a lot from the Portuguese influence, which lasted for over 400 years. The Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration and especially the Basic Law of Macau, which stipulates that Macau operates with a high degree of autonomy at least until 2049, are the corner-stones of local development in the past years.
That Basic Law-based development, with cultural heritage, new casino concessionaires and business/commercial ties with the Portuguese-speaking countries, were possible due to the establishment of the Basic Law, which in turn, set the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region.
And that’s what Macau is – a Special Administrative Region, with a high degree of autonomy and law-protected basic freedoms, made possible only by the agreement between Portugal and China (with no neo-colonialist hidden feelings there), with the original framework of the legal system, based largely on Portuguese law or Portuguese civil law system preserved after the Handover, in 1999.
However, it doesn’t seem that the local government is eager to maintain that high degree of autonomy – evident in some of the “small things”, which are not that small.
When a government bureau invites “friends of the media” (as they put it) to an official event, a newsworthy event, the least you expect is that they will respect the Basic Law. However, that seems to be happening less and less.
Just the other day, during an official government event, there was no Portuguese information available to the journalists and no interpreters. I was then asked to remain in my seat and the information would be “sort of” translated.
“Sort of”, because no one could translate it to English, let alone to Portuguese.
The truth is that there is only one official language in Macau, and that would be ok, if it weren’t for the Basic Law and the “official” importance government officials seem to repeat over and over, with no real implementation, regarding the Portuguese language.
Under the principle of “one country, two systems”, Macau officials, rather than PRC officials, run Macau through the exercise of separate executive, legislative, and judicial powers, as well as the right to final adjudication and that’s only possible due to the Basic Law, which of course, includes two official languages, Chinese and Portuguese.
If, in fact, the government doesn’t respect that, Macau can say goodbye to the “high degree of autonomy”.
Macau is one of many officially interested regions in joining the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) as a full member but it doesn’t look like that will happen in the near future.
Because one of the features in the CPLP is that its members share a common language, among other things, which forms a bridge among countries separated by great distances and on different continents.
Someone once told me I was lucky, while working for an English-language newspaper, to master Portuguese, because it’s an official language in Macau.
Indeed I am lucky to understand Portuguese because many English speaking journalists have no access to much of the information provided by government bureaus, private institutions and companies, but now, mastering Portuguese doesn’t seem that great anymore.