Dr. Liu Der Hong put it aptly.
National University of Singapore transport researcher Lee Der-Horng said that as public transport services were a public good, the operators should look for ways internally to increase their efficiency. "They should consider all other alternatives and cut their costs before approaching the commuters, as a last resort," he said.
The government had been warned from many quarters even before they started on this brain dead idea of a for profit public transport system. I guess some people just need to learn it the hard way. I am just amazed how many times they need to bang their heads against the wall.
Wake up your idea. An antagonistic system between profit and public service is a bankrupt idea because almost all the power is vested with those pursuing profits. It is some sneaky means of taxing the people while at the same time you could boast of having low tax rates. Effective tax rates are actually very high but it is often confused as rising cost of living. You can bluff everyone sometime but you can't do that all the time. I suppose we have lived this long enough that "all the time" has arrived.
I hope the G learns quickly that their philosophy behind public transportation here has become politically untenable.
Lui TY (and virtuall all the other Ministers) are essentially administrators or civil servants. All their life, they've grown up in this type of environment. If a superior says do X, I do X. If inputs to an equation change, output change. Simple, straight-forward mathematics. So to him, its a no-brainer - oh, got China strike? Over low wage? Then, need to increase wage. Then need to increase fares.
ReplyDeleteSimple arithmatics.
The problem is that they forgot that they are highly-paid MINISTERS, and supposedly the best leaders money can buy. Passing on cost, because inputs have increased, is a no-brainer. Any young kid can do that and knows that. As a leader, they're supposed to have a wider picture and think bigger and more wholistically. They don't. Because its much tougher to argue for a "lets rethink privatisation" thing - its, to put it midly, one of the Sacred Cows. So its an easier thing to do to just kick the can down to consumers.
Just like all his predecessors have done since "privatisation". And so it will be, sometime next year. The Committee will announce its decision, the public will complain, they promise the poor will get vouchers, and life goes on. Until Liu TY got moved to another ministry, and another Rambo comes to town as the new Transport Minister. Get some photoop of taking a MRT or bus ride. And it goes on and on.
Relooking at transport, and any other area,
ReplyDeleteto solve problems involves looking at things
Holistically. It involves changing one's mindset.
The govt has made Very Clear it is not capable
of changing its mindset. It is only able to tweak
situations, and minimally. Basically, it is stuck in
old ways, 40 yr old ways. To change, a revolution
is needed - a mental and attitudinal revolution.
And not just by the govt but by Sporeans too.
In the not too distant future, all the disconnected
tweaks are going to come back and bite it and
us. Just as its inability to change its mindset
and have fresh perspectives and approaches over
the years are affecting us adversely now.
Expect a lot more banging the head against the
wall. This is because these govt pple are Only
scholars, people who literally go by the book.
They're not revolutionaries or leaders in the real
sense of these words, the kind of pple needed today.
Wat he wants is for PAP to look after the interest of shareholders (meaning the government or PAP)first,but to the stakeholders of temasek,he declared you die your business,wat a PAP Minister?
ReplyDeleteA government that allows profiteering of the nation's public good is intellectually unsound and morally bankrupt.
ReplyDeleteMismanagement? Raise fees. Incompetence? Raise charges. Unprofitable? Raise fares. Doesn't work? Adjust. The Singapoor Way
ReplyDelete