Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Chinese New Year Revelations

Chinese New Year reunion dinners are a great time for exchange of gossip. Fortified with 14-year-old whiskey, supposedly more mellow than Blue Label Johnny Walker, inhibitions vaporise and all tongues are let loose. Guess what? The picture of ex-SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa seated on a sedan chair carried aloft by eight bare-bodied men in at her company’s dinner and dance was not photoshopped!
Er, guys, you should be heading for the exit doors...

The more important revelation is that the window in the failed MRT car need not have been shattered, because there was a back up battery system that should have keep the lights and air-con working for at least 45 minutes! The relative who confirmed this gem also said, from the inception, the UK provided copies of their operating manuals and documentation of years of experience in train operation to help our SMRT planners get started. So the only excuse for the in-tunnel black-out would have to be the classic DBS line - we have the backup system in place, but chose not to switch it on.

More riveting is the structural constraint in the congestion problem.  Way back when Ong Teng Cheong (the president who was denied a gun-carriage funeral) battled Goh Keng Swee for a all-train over all-bus, or bus-plus-train mass transportation options, the population numbers justified 6-car trains. The foreign talent policy, the 6-million population target, are making nonsense out of this configuration. Look at the train stations, under-ground and above-ground, they are physically handicapped to support longer trains, unlike Hong Kong, Japan or the UK.  In Sydney, there are double decker cars to handle heavier passenger loads, which current MRT tunnels are not designed to accommodate. Aren't those guys supposedly (over) paid for long range far-sightedness in planning for the future?

The morning after, one hoped that the nightmares conjectured were just alcohol fuelled. But no, even after cups of head clearing kopi-o, the headaches are as real as ever.  Just take a look at the nearest MRT station.

6 comments:

  1. Thought their high pay is supposed to attract talents or 1st class brainy people to run the country. Obviously, the various cock-ups we see that have happened, is a slap on this tested hard fact about Singapore.

    I always believe in this basic economic principle - Law Of Diminishing Return - returns go up initially upon increasing steady amount of inputs, beyond a certain point, inefficiency sets in, with steadily decreasing returns.

    Applying this theory, it is obviously we are over-rewarding them, not what one PAP member said tipping the scale of balance to the other side.

    Wish To Dedicate This Song To The Ex-SMRT CEO & Those Over-Paid Incapable Ministers - Don't Cry For Me, Singapore!

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  2. The village idiot is still asking for Singaporeans to have more babies.

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  3. Remember our Progress Packages were given during the 2006 & 2010 election years. But then DPM WKS (PAP) dismissed claims that the progress package constitutes a form of vote buying.

    Let's wait & see whether they are including it in the coming Budget. If it is not included, then the greatest revelation must be that honesty wasn't exactly one of PAP's asset, agree ? And that the white uniform is quite a sham, no?

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  4. "But then DPM WKS (PAP) dismissed claims that the progress package constitutes a form of vote buying."

    If it looks like shit.
    It smells like shit.
    It tastes like shit.

    It's probably .....

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  5. fuck pap fuck leegime

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  6. Just a thought... what happens if Saw were undercutting maintenance jobs on train tracks and backup systems in return for undertable services (from macho men) which do not involve money (in similar fashion to the SCDF officer in the limelight today) ?

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