Together let us call for a comprehensive review of transport system
Statement on the massive MRT breakdown on 15 Dec
Public transport has been the hallmark of Singapore’s success in the eyes of the government. They have always claimed that it is priced reasonably, is highly efficient, and has brought much convenience to Singaporeans.
Singaporeans have now woken up to know that last night’s catastrophic MRT train failure has shown this to be categorically untrue. Trains were stuck in the middle of the underground tunnel without ventilation; delays for hours during peak hours in the morning and the evening; SMRT posting messages of an “Income opportunity” to their taxis during the MRT break down are examples of how disappointing our public infrastructure can be.
Even if breakdowns are truly beyond SMRT’s control, the emergency contingency measures taken were absolutely appalling, such as leaving commuters to suffocate in trains.
Nothing should be more important than this as public transport can paralyze the entire nation from what we have seen a few days ago: -
- Taxi queues caused massive jams on the roads which could have posed a hindrance to emergency calls;
- Chaos in train stations and on the streets;
- National Service recall could have been obstructed.
I call for the top management of the relevant public transport company and authorities to be held to full account for these incidents, including the possibility for those responsible for serious security lapses to resign.
As of this afternoon, I note that the CEO of SMRT has apologised at a press conference and promised to do their best to prevent such an occurrence again.
However the problems of our transport system and policy are structural in nature, and goes beyond SMRT’s powers. Following other recent incidents of major concern like the taxi fare hike, I call for a comprehensive review of our transport system and policy by the government.
Here’s what we can do as Singaporeans.
- a. ‘Like’ this message and pass it on;
- Write letters of complaint and petition directly to the office of the Minister of Transport and the Prime Minister’s Office to raise the major issues that affect you every day;
- Seek the President’s guidance since he is our symbol of unity of how this can be dealt with.
In the following few days, I will be drafting a sample letter of complaint and petition so we can all use it to send.
On my part as an NCMP, I will present more comprehensive proposals on transport issues in Parliament during the budget debate in March next year. I will take the time until then to consult the opinions and feedback of Singaporeans from all walks of life through online media and in person, and I will discuss with my team in the Singapore People’s Party as to what proposals we can put forward. In this consultative manner, we will improve the transport infrastructure of our country together.
When Singaporeans complain about our transport infrastructure, it is not because they are spoiled. Singaporeans have the good sense to be able to tell when transport failures are the result of incompetence, sheer arrogance and complacency on the part of the transport authorities and service providers.
With concern and love,
Lina Chiam, NCMP
Singapore People’s Party
While all Singaporeans were focusing on the SMRT fiasco, another less prominent ministerial screw-up had also taken place.
A private school had closed down and it emerged that the operator of the school, a Chinese national who had recently received her PR, had similar problems with the MOE with previous schools she was running. Someone asked, in the ST Forum, why the MOE had allowed a person with such a questionable track record operate a school again and, as usual, MOE gave a vague and unjustified response.
When I read about this incident, I remembered another similar case, a few years back, once again involving the MOE. I’m sure many of us remember the Nanyang Institute of Management (NIM) case which closed down and left many international students stranded.
At that time, I was attending a berakfast session for the Association of Private Schools and a few people there were asking a lot of questions about NIM and the MOE. They were saying that NIM was run a Chinese national by the name of Evelyn and that she had suffered similar results with other schools prior to running NIM.
They were also asking, not just how the MOE had allowed her to operate a school despite her past record, but more importantly, how NIM had been awarded the Singapore Quality Class (SQC).
Another interesting issue was what happened to NIM after its collapse. Spring Singapore took over the management and immediately conferred on itself the SQC. Shouldn’t an award be earned – shouldn’t they have granted themselves the award after a period of time when they proved themselves worthy of the award? How can a “new” untested school be awarded the SQC?
We all know how the government have asked Singaporeans to be more entrepreneurial while going into business themselves and “cornering the market” in many areas of business. They have done the same for education.
In the last couple of years, they have squeezed most smaller private schools out of business by not awarding them the required certifications and awards. Look at the private education picture in Singapore now and you’ll see that many of them are government-linked like PSB and ASB. Others have “harder-to-find” government links but they have definitely cornered the education market.
They would respond that they had to step in to protect Singapore’s reputation as an education hub but many of the schools collapsing can be attributed back to the MOE who were allowing anyone to apply for and operate a school, even those with poor, dubious or even failed track records.