Phonies Running For President

Don't bother to look for the above post in phony Tan's Facebook account. It's gone. Deleted. Disappeared into the twilight zone, dumped into the black hole where the hard truths about Singapore are buried.

Dr Tony Tan righteously claimed, "I regret that, for the first time since this page's inception, I have had to delete a post." He adds, "This page's criteria for civility is not whether the posts are favourable to me. ... I started this page with the intention to create a place of genuine, honest and respectful debate."

Yeah, but not when the debate is about his son's special deal to serve his NS obligation as a "defence research scientist" while lesser mortals end up with less exotic vocations like Combat Medic. Or worse. Puthucheary for one would have loved to learn about this option during the election hustings. His declaration that "I've spent the last 10 years saving kids' lives" in lieu of serving NS would certainly have drawn fewer brickbats from patriotic netizens.

The cowardly deletion, plus phony affirmation of "genuine, honest and respectful debate", is significant. It is concrete evidence that cronyism is rampant in certain quarters. Intent is nine tenths of the law, but the missing bit will always jump up and bite you, more so when the race for $4 million is now on. Revelations like the one below strike a resonant chord with the outraged when we are supposed to be living in a country that subscribes to meritocracy.
 

More Trains Coming

In July 2010 Saw Phaik Hwa, CEO, SMRT, said: "It is crowded, but when they are already running at 2-3 minutes (intervals), it's the most that I can do. I cannot go faster than that without compromising safety and reliability." Unlike Raymond Lim, Saw knows she has the protection of her godmother. Not so Lui Tuck Yew, who has just announced plans to cut peak hour waiting times from 2.5 minutes to 2.2 minutes between Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Panjang stations - without compromising safety and reliability.

SMRT used to claim it would cost gadzillion dollars to modify the signaling system to improve train intervals. They also claimed that installing safety barriers would cost another gadzillion bucks. It took a watershed election to convince these inveterate liars and appreciate the social costs of their folly.

The Transport Minister, having experienced congestion at first hand, said LTA and SMRT will purchase 13 extra train cars to provide overdue relief on the Bukit Panjang line. Currently SMRT has 19 train cars for that line, and runs a maximum of 18 cars during peak hours in 6 double-car and 6 single-car trains. Notice no exorbitantly expensive reconfiguration of the signalling system was required.

Lui also addressed measures to boost the reliability by investing $3.12 million over the next 12 months. Every month since January, there have been at least 2 interruptions per month lasting more than 10 minutes each. So much for Saw Phaik Hwa's argument that going faster will compromise safety and reliability. This coming from someone who breezes around town in a Ferrari.

It will take some time before commuters stop associating the Minister's name with a similar sounding profanity since the overdue measures are applicable only for one line of many. Plus, it is not hard to imagine the fellow is obviously is working on another line of excuses to justify the impending fare hike.

SMRT Breaks Even

At a recent National Day celebration, PM Lee responded to charges that the government is helping public transport operators to make more profits, "there is no reason for us to do so. But we have to allow the transport companies to break even and to make reasonable profits, so that they can provide this good service." The play on semantics here is "break even" and "reasonable profits". For a guy used to multi-million dollar pay checks, peanuts must mean more than the $600,000 benchmarked by Mrs Goh Chok Tong.

In a desperate attempt to justify another fare hike, SMRT CEO highlighted the 8.9 percent fall in 1st quarter profit to $34.8 million, on the back of 7.5 percent rise in revenue to $253.1 million. Put aside for the moment the business anomally how extra revenue generates less income for the train operator. In January SMRT reported net profit after tax for 3Q FY11 was $43.0 million, 9.6% higher as compared to the same quarter the year before. However you look at it, if profit levels of about $120 million a year are considered "break even" numbers, we must really check what PM Lee was drinking when he made that speech.

SMRT's Profit Ride
2010	$162.885 million
2009	$162.731 million
2008	$149.939 million
2007	$135.790 million
2006	$103.624 million
2005	$126.552 million
2004	$89.496 million
2003	$72.068 million
2002	$56.797 million
2001	$102.797 million
2000	$115.442 million

Ms Lim, the SMRT's vice-president of for finance, said staff costs rose because of head count, higher CPF contributions and absence of job credits of $1.2 million this year. She also blamed the electrical tariffs which increased 5 to 6 percent this quarter. Excusez-moi, commuters are already hit by the same electrical tariff hike in their utility bill, must they also be whacked with a second whammy by the train operators?

We get a sneak peek at how SMRT runs its business. Ms Lim said the company was moving towards a digital platform of advertising, which means an increase in depreciation costs and headcount. Advertising profits had fallen by 4.9 percent, and they still plan to throw good money after bad. And make the commuters pay for their foolhardiness. This is what happens when you have a DFS sale girl running a public transportation service. Instead of focusing on efficient train turnaround, minimisation of downtime, optimisation of maintenance and spares inventory, they are more enamoured with glitzy ads. Who knows, they may even install the mobile TV screens that irritated bus commuters to no end.

Signs Of A Weak, Ineffectual Government

"We've told everyone back in China how good and safe Singapore is - how do we explain to them now about what has happened to us?" The answer won't come easy for for Mr Li Wencheng, who hails from scenic Guilin, China, and now a Singapore permanent resident at Tampines. MP with special privileges Lee Kuan Yew inadvertently gave the clue when interviewed on China Central Television, "I believe once you have a weak, ineffectual government, the whole progress you have made will spiral down." That must be his son's governance he was referring to.

Li Wencheng, 39, and his wife, Yuanxiu, 42, had just returned home from their fish soup stall at Tampines 1 Mall, when they were slashed by a 25 year old at the door step of their rented flat. Their two daughters, ages 17 and 9, are studying in China, and are not taking advantage of MOE's generosity towards foreign students. Since the assailant was staying in the same block, this violence could not be pinned on the loan-sharks, who are doing a roaring trade since the casinos opened shop. Samaritans Of Singapore reported 352 calls for help about loan sharks, up from 217 in 2009. So where were the friendly neighborhood police when you need them?

The neighbourhood police post system was styled after the Japanese Koban (交番, kōban), where uniformed police work is done from small buildings located within the community, a form of community policing. In the early stages of implementation, the police actually made their patrols of the housing estates on bicycles, Japanese style. Nowadays, they prefer to be cooped up in their airconditioned cosy corners, doing their monitoring by surfing the internet. Or they might cruise the private estates in their airconditioned patrol cars, maintaining security for the odd Ang Moh jogging with an ill-fitting sports bra along deserted roads. Or handcuffing school kids who are still wondering what hideous criminality could be attributed to distributing flyers and name cards for pocket money.

3 min 50 sec of infamy

According to the police, Li Wencheng's attacker was suffering from mental problems, and "investigations are in progress", the same phrase used when responding to queries about the status of the investigation on the "Cooling Off Day" transgression. We will have to wait to see if the attack was instigated by xenophobia fueled by the likes of another China PR, Wang Peng Fei (王鹏飞). In a 4 minute YouTube video, since taken down, Wang wore ghastly lipstick and parodied Singaporeans, describing local Chinese as descendants of poor Chinese coolies. A police report has been lodged, and "investigations are in progress". The police definitely moved at a quicker pace in 2005, when two Singaporean bloggers were charged under the Sedition Act for making racist remarks online, and another Singaporean blogger promptly joined their ranks 4 days later.

A Few Bad Guys

It gives cause to wonder if intellectual property laws are selectively applied in Singapore. First they rip off Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance", and mangled the lyrics into an ode to a NDP Fun Pack. Now one of the best Jack Nicholson movies is endangered by some brown nosing MediaCorp executive's dubious attempt to "honor" three characters. The common denominator in the triumvirate is that each has had his grubby hands, at one time or the other, on our secretive reserves, a significant component of the pricing for a public housing flat. We thank Mah Bow Tan for that gem.

The original play by Aaron Sorkin tells the story of military lawyers at a court-martial who uncover a high-level conspiracy, in the course of defending their United States Marines clients who are accused of murder. We know how a Singapore version will end: public prosecutors withhold evidence, wrongfully extracted confessions, and victims are narrowly saved from the gallows after an appeal by a saint of a solicitor working pro-bono - there are a few good lawyers in town. Maybe there's hope after all, we won't be downgrading from First World to Third.

Some lines which require minor tweaks, and we should have an Oscar contender on our hands:

Kaffee: Is the colonel's underwear HDB flat pricing a matter of national security?

Kaffee: Maybe, if we work at it, we can get Dawson charged with the Kennedy assassination. fix the opposition and rule forever.

Kaffee: You don't need a patch on your arm to have honor. of detaining innocent people without trial.

Kaffee: This code of honor of yours makes me wanna beat the *shit* outta somebody. [no change required]

Kaffee: I want the truth! about our reserves!
Col. Jessep: [shouts] You can't handle the truth! You can't even handle my "Hard Truths" book!

Lt. Weinberg: Cmdr. Galloway, Lt. Kaffee is considered to be the best litigator in our office. He successfully plea bargained sued and bankrupted 44 cases political opponents in 9 months.
Kaffee: One more and I get a set of steak knives. and I get a National Day Award.

Col. Jessep: I run my unit how I run my unit. You want to investigate me, roll the dice and take your chances. Remember, one freak election result, and I get to send in the army.

Downey: What did we do wrong? We did nothing wrong.
Dawson: Yeah, we did. We were supposed to fight for the people who couldn't fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willie. Singaporeans, not the foreign talent crowd.

Col. Jessep: We follow give orders, son. We follow give orders or people die your asset values will be in peril, your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people's countries, foreign workers. It's that simple. Are we clear?
 Kaffee: Yes sir.
Col. Jessep: Are we clear?
Kaffee: Crystal.