About a month ago, the Transport Bureau of Macau issued a press release stating that the bus route frequency will be adjusted from August. As soon as the news came out, there was a raging crowd on the social media. According to the two buses companies to adjust the schedule, public opinion strongly criticized the Transport Bureau “geometric progression” to cut the bus route frequency to an average of 20 to 30 minutes, and night bus services were even reduced to 60 minutes.
Three days later, the Bureau suddenly held a press conference. Director Lam Hin San said at the meeting that in fact, the reduction of about 200 routes would save about 2 million patacas in public funds. He said that if the public has any misunderstandings regarding the bus adjustments this summer vacation, “we apologize.”
At the end of August, the Education and Youth Bureau suddenly announced in the anti-epidemic press conference that in response to the latest epidemic prevention guidelines of the Health Bureau, children under the age of 3 are not suitable to wear masks and stay on campus for a long time. It is stipulated that children aged 3 or above can return to school before school starts on September 1. A large number of parents were fell lost and questioned whether children under 3 years old could not go back to school, but allow applying for nursery school was contradictory.
In response to relevant questions, the Secretary for Education and Youth, Lou Pak Seng stated that the policy was launched hastily and an apology to the affected parents. Although he has repeatedly admitted that the practice has inadequacies, he emphasized that it is a government policy and will not change the decision.
After government officials apologize and admit their mistakes (or even deny mistakes), the problem is that they continue to make the same mistakes again and again. The problem is that officials think that if they apologize, they are responsible, and that if they apologize, things will gone. Please don’t forget that admitting your mistake is to admit your fault, and you should take actual actions to remedy it after you apologize.
*Journalist
