Police ban Tiananmen vigil in Macao for the second time
Lawmaker complains that police refusal to grant permission is due to political considerations and has nothing to do with Covid-19 control measures.
The Public Security Police (PSP) have refused permission for a 4 June vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests for the second year in a row.
Veteran non-establishment lawmaker Ng Kuok Cheong told the Portuguese-language radio channel of government-owned broadcaster TDM that the PSP had informed the organisers that the vigil could not go ahead because of Covid-19 prevention and control measures. Last year’s vigil was not authorised for the same reason.
Ng said that the PSP decision was “irrational” and due to “political considerations”, adding that the vigil’s organisers planned to appeal the decision to the Court of Final Appeal.
Pre-Covid-19, the vigil had been organised annually by a group of activists including Ng and fellow non-establishment lawmaker Au Kam San. A few hundred people attended the vigil each time in the past two decades.
