The government’s decision to stop releasing data on suicides and suicide attempts is part of a worrying category of institutional silences that weaken public trust and impoverish social debate.
For a decade, this data was regularly made public by both the Health Services and the Security authorities. There were statistical series, breakdowns by gender, age group, and other data. Above all, there was the implicit assumption that suicide is not just an individual tragedy, but a social phenomenon that demands knowledge, prevention, and informed public policies. This commitment has disappeared without explanation.
The tacit justification seems to lie in an official narrative that privileges the idea of a “happy, harmonious, and stable Macau,” where certain numbers are inconvenient because they challenge the constructed image. But governing is not about managing perceptions, nor about hiding difficult realities. Governing is about confronting problems – especially those that don’t fit into slogans.
Suicide is not just an individual tragedy, but a social phenomenon that demands knowledge, prevention, and informed public policies.
The data withdrawal comes after 2024 recorded the highest number of suicides ever in Macau. Ninety deaths are not a statistical detail; they are a warning sign. And the known data from 2025, although incomplete, show that the problem persists. Choosing silence in this context does not reduce the phenomenon – you only try to hide it.
Without data, there is no diagnosis. Without diagnosis, there is no effective prevention. And without prevention, the human cost accumulates, outside the official radar. By forgoing disclosure, the Government does not protect society; it protects itself from the “discomfort” that the numbers generate.
It is legitimate to discuss how this data is presented, the responsible framework of the information, and the risk of contagion effects. But turning suicide into a taboo subject, into a “secret that cannot be told,” is to return to a pre-modern logic of governance, where discomfort is resolved with omission.
*Editor-in-chief of PLATAFORMA
