Letters to the press

Three letters in the Today paper. One claimed that the PTC are not using statistics properly in approving the next bus fare hike. Another claimed that the PTC are not thinking about the elderly and needy who have no income. And a third said HDB was not compassionate enough. If all these claims are true, then it is not funny. Using statistics or using statistics to serve one's ends, that I have just touched a couple of days ago. Use the statistics to serve one's interest. Read the part that fit into your own scheme of things. It has always been like that. It is called the ingenious way of using statistics to benefit oneself. Only the user knows what he is doing. He answers to his conscience. As for the elderly and the needy, they need not worry. There is a $3 million cash fund to help them. At $30 per head, 100,000 of them will stand to benefit. So all these people will be better off than before the fare hike. Now what more can they ask for. Some of them may not even take public transport and may get $30 extra pocket money, that is, if the money gets to them. As for the HDB case, it is a very complicated matter. That one got to leave it to the paid experts to handle.