In what was supposed to be a joint forum on infrastructure maintenance, Minister Khaw seized the opportunity to slam PAP-controlled media for their reports on the recent massive record breakdowns.
Khaw has accused the mainstream media of having “turned tabloid”. He even joked about asking reporters to run the train system because they had thought running a complex system was as easy as “holding a pen and writing a few articles, and get the signalling done”. His audience – mostly subordinates – laughed. It’s likely most had no choice but to suck up; or perhaps others might have mistaken him for a local comedian.
Khaw: “But I think they were being unfair to the teams … working their guts out on this re-signalling project.”
Khaw tried to deflect blame from top management by claiming media reports were targeted at teams on the ground.
Truth be said, commuters are fed up with the fucked up management of our MRT system by PAP. Issues cannot be resolved unless incompetence is booted out.
Although commuters have been frustrated by too many major disruptions this year, Khaw did not address this issue. Instead, he went on to praise our MRT system and anyhow claimed it has become 3 times more reliable since he became MOT minister.
In the 1990s, before former CEO Saw broke the system, trains were less crowded and commuters did not have to worry if they got to work, meetings or exams on time.
But in less than 2 decades under 2 PAP-appointed CEOs, productivity losses have probably exceeded 5600-man years, costing billions of dollars.
It was not too long ago that Khaw had audaciously preached accountability to opposition MPs in Parliament. Well, the MRT system has clearly been mismanaged but none has step forward to take responsibility. Shouldn’t SMRT chairman Koh Yong Guan and CEO Desmond call a press conference and do the “right” thing?
Image source
If Khaw is a gentleman, why not take responsibility like the Japanese in the good old days?
Seriously, Khaw should not have insulted commuters by uttering rubbish about improvements when our MRT system may have to be replaced.
Perhaps Khaw just can’t help himself as his mental faculties have likely failed to the extent that no medicine can help. 🙂
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