Strike Two

Last Wednesday, 17 August, a northbound train was vandalised with graffiti and fencing at Bishan Depot tampered with. Nearly a week has passed, SMRT has yet to reveal how security was breached. Initially subcontractor Evtec Management Services was fingered, but they knew the blame game has its limits. Pinnochio's nose can only grow so long.

Whatcha gonna do about it?

Proof of how blur the management can be comes no better than this: "All MRT trains, inside and out, will now be inspected visually by SMRT staff before being deployed on their daily operations," said Ms Saw Phaik Hwa, the highest paid CEO in the history of the transport operator. Hello missy, you mean to say, for all these years, not a single technical staff has been deputed to make a visual check of the train before it rolls out the depot? Mercifully there has been no incident of mechanical failures, a loose under carriage component would have killed someone easily. On 16 August 2002, a 13.4 kg safety wheel fell off a train and hit the head of pedestrian David Cheliah, a journalist, walking under the Kuala Lumpur Monorail viaduct at Jalan Sultan Ismail. Dealing with heavy rolling stock is not the same keeping stock of lip gloss at a DFS outlet.

In spite of spending some $6 million for "security enhancements", such as sturdier welded fences, a Fence Intrusion Detection System and more lights and CCTV cameras, someone still managed to waltz right into the depot and decorated their car with a leisurely spray painted "Jet Setter's". Barely 15 months ago, Swiss national Oliver Fricker and Briton accomplice, Dane Alexander Lloyd, had also expressed their foreign talent creativity on a parked MRT train. Dr Kumar Ramakrishna, head of the Centre of Excellence for National Security at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, underscored the severity of the security lapses: “If relatively unsophisticated vandals seeking thrills can gain unauthorised access to our trains, trained and determined terrorists with far sinister aims could do so as well.”

Saw's haughty dismissal of another slap-on-the-wrist $50,000 token fine is evident in her insouciance: “If LTA decides to fine us, so be it.” Emboldened by her patron, The Daughter-In-Law, she can easily give LTA's Lui Tuck Yew the one-finger salute. Besides, the puny fine is more than compensated for by the recent 1% hike in train fares, courtesy of the compliant sycophant, Gerard Ee of PTC. Assured of her immortality, she boldly promised, "We cannot have another incident." Remember, three strikes and you're out. Let's see if she lives up to her word, or blame it on "likelihood of human failure" when third time comes around.