Macau protest leader Sulu Sou remains defiant after protests over contentious bill
Young Macau activist Sulu Sou Ka-hou once thought the unprecedented social movement he co-led last year against an unpopular government bill would herald a civil awakening of his mostly apolitical fellow residents.
But more than one year on, he admitted the demonstration of May 2014 was nothing close to an “awakening”, even if it was the biggest march to take place in the former Portuguese enclave since its handover in 1999.
“In fact, someone made a vivid description in layman’s terms – [last year’s movement] was merely a pee at midnight,” Sou told the South China Morning Post. “Our residents woke up to use the bathroom after they felt ‘unbearable’ – but then they decided to go back to sleep right afterwards.”
Some 20,000 Macau residents joined protests that eventually forced Chief Executive Dr Fernando Chui Sai-on to scrap a bill which would have granted top officials lavish retirement packages. A return to the city’s apparently sleepy indifference since then, however, has not forced Sou to fade quietly from the scene.
Over the past few months, the 23-year-old president of the New Macau Association has worked closely with a team of academics and activists on his new book, Scrap! Do you still remember it?, to mark the first anniversary of the protests.
“[The whole protest saga] could not be left blank,” he said. “People might still remember this big incident after five years but the officials might twist the facts some 10 or 50 years later. We hope to leave a black-and-white record of what happened.”
Publishing a book on a social movement was harder in Macau than in Hong Kong. Mainland officials confiscated the first batch of books, printed in Zhuhai, because of the sensitive subject matter, Sou said. More copies ended up being produced by a Hong Kong publisher.
Looking ahead, Sou said he was hopeful of the city’s future.
“This piece of memory, as long as it stays, might perhaps be a motivation that drives people to the street when they come across another incident they find undesirable.”
