Can there be a better solution to the transportation problem?

The roads are congested, too many cars and too few roads. In order to ease the congestion, either the roads be increased or the number of cars decreased. All solutions lie in this two permutations. Car ownership, COE, ERP, ARF, parking, petrol taxes etc etc revolve around limiting usage or cars on the road. All the solutions implemented and suggested, including those of Prof Paul Barter, are workable for the same reason and logic. People who want to drive must pay for the convenience.

Is there any better way? No way. The only solution is to control the car population which is directly related to the population and size of the island. If the population continues to grow, 5.5m now and 6.9m in 2030, what would the situation be? It can only be worst. Car ownership and driving on the road is going to be more costly. This is guaranteed.

You need more space or lesser cars. If the population can be reduced to 4m, the strain on the roads will be lesser and the percentage of car owners versus the population can be higher. Bring down the population or increase land space and roads. There is no other solution other than increasing the cost of car ownership or usage. There is nothing clever about it. No matter how one tweaks the formula, it is still about paying and paying. The difference is who and how to pay.

Singapore’s changing demography

The population of Singapore used to be 75% Chinese, 12% Malay, 8% Indian and 5% Others or thereabout, plus or minus here and there. What is the racial distribution today? Assuming that this racial mix remains fairly unchanged, the distribution will be 37.5% Chinese, 6% Malay, 4% Indian and 2.5 Others. How so? Coz the other 50% has gone to foreigners, either PRs or transient workers. And what is the racial mix of the 50% foreigners? My guess, 50% from India, 30% from China, 10% from Philippines and 10% for the rest of the world. I don’t have the official data and this is just a guesstimate. Add this to the whole population mix and we will have (37.5 + 15) 52.5% Chinese, (4+25) 29% Indians, (3+5) 8% Malay if the Pinoys are categorized as Malays, and 5% for the rest of the world. I think this mix can be seen in the trains or buses and can be confirmed by a random check on the commuters inside a train cabin or inside a bus. I stress again, the numbers are educated guesses.

What does the new mix imply or how would it affect the social and cultural pattern of the population? Let me just look at one specific area, language or lingua franca. Singapore has been selling itself as a destination for education with English as a predominant language. English is our lingua franca and foreign students can come here to be immersed in an English speaking world. This is particularly attractive to the PRC and Korean students and also students from Asean who wanted to become more proficient in English. The students could get not only a quality education but also learn a useful English language by interacting with the locals.

This advantage has changed. When the foreigners are a minority, they could turn everywhere, every corner to find a Singaporean to talk to, in English. Now this is becoming a rarity. For every Singaporean they met, they will meet another foreigner. Even in the schools and universities, the number of foreigners is increasing. It will mean that foreign students will have lesser opportunities to learn the English language, in particular the PRC students, many will end up speaking Mandarin and not English. This could also apply to students from other countries when they too find it difficult to associate or communicate with Singaporeans in English.

When Singaporeans are a minority or near minority, the Singapore culture, way of life and even the English language will have lesser room to express itself. The only people that could benefit from this demographic shift are actually the Singaporeans. Singaporeans will now be more international, having been exposed to more foreigners, integrated with more foreigners, and could even learn some Tagalog, Hindi and perfect their Mandarin. It would be reversed integration in a way as the dominant Singaporean way, culture and language will no longer be dominant anymore. Singaporeans are no longer the dominant or outright majority people in the island.

As they said, or joke about, Singaporeans need not have to leave the island to see the world. Hop into a train and he will be in a sea of international citizens. If they want a little more of India, go to Little India. And there is China Town and Geylang, and Beach Road to be in Bangkok or Orchard Road to be in Makati, or Botanic Garden to feel more like in the Philippines. Singaporeans can save a lot of money from travelling when the world is at their doorstep.

The demographic change has a lot of tangible benefits for the Singaporeans sure. Singapore is truly an international city and Singaporeans are international citizens.

Free travel on MRT on week days

A one year trial for free travel on the MRT will commence on 24 June. Everyone travelling early on the train will definitely love it. It is so unbelieveable that things can be had for free in this no free lunch City. I just hope that it will not cause more problems than solving problems. Keep the fingers crossed that the trains will not be jam packed by foreigner workers early in the morning just for the free ride.

Commuters must exit from 16 stations in town to enjoy the free ride. The stations are,

‘Bugis, Chinatown, City Hall, Clarke Quay, Dhoby Ghaut, Lavender, Orchard, Outram Park, Raffles Place, Somerset, Tanjong Pagar, Bayfront, Bras Basah, Esplanade, Marina Bay and Promenade…Commuters who exit at these stations between 7.45am and 8am will be given a discount of up to 50 cents off their train fare. The Government will be funding this one-year trial.

Boston Marathon Explosion

2 dead and more than a hundred injured when two bombs blew up at the finishing line of the Boston Marathon yesterday. It may be due to gas containers blowing up in nearby kitchen, nothing related to terrorist acts, so nothing to worry about. Police are still investigating.

The chilling truth is that it is coming home. The 911 did not deter the Americans from continuing to start wars and conduct military aggression against other countries in foreign soils. The Americans think that it is their right to conduct wars and terrorism in other countries and they are safe at home. The war is coming home. Terrorist acts are coming home.

Now there is no where to run and no where to hide. Would the Americans start to rethink of their crimes overseas, regime change, wars on WMD and think that they can do it repeatedly with impunity? Or would they be more retrospect and introspect and top meddling with other countries affairs, stop killing the innocents of other countries and brush them off as collateral damages.

The dead and injured at the Boston Marathon are also collateral damages of American war atrocities across the world. Take the message, read the message, terrorism is coming home to roost. No where is safe. Basketball matches have to be cancelled, baseball matches have to be cancelled, football matches, theatres etc etc have to be cancelled. Life is not going to be the same anymore.

Make car driving ‘tougher’

I am floored by the brilliant suggestion of Adjunct Associate Professor Paul Barter of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy that in order to improve the road conditions, one way is to ‘make driving less attractive and restrict it as a transportation option while making alternatives, such as public transport, more desirable than driving.’ Why can’t our super talents think of such a wonderful idea, and why is it that we always need a foreign talent to tell us the obvious?

Make driving tough, unattractive, difficult and expensive, higher COE prices must be one of them, or can make it more palatable by other similar schemes. Make price of cars more expensive also can. Erect more ERPs, make parking even more expensive, send the Traffic Cops to issue more summons, etc etc. Now, all these added together would definitely make driving less attractive and make the roads freer. How come it takes so long for the Govt to come up with such a solution really baffles me.

The same philosophy or mentality can be applied to other problems facing the country. Housing is a big problem. Everyone wants to buy bigger and bigger homes. The solution, make home ownership less attractive. Raise property prices, more taxes on more properties, higher stamp duties, more taxes on profits, etc etc, will definitely make the people stop buying properties and instead opt for rentals or just staying with parents.

What else can be made less attractive? Schools, branded schools, make it very difficult and expensive to be enrolled in branded schools. That will keep the demand for such schools low. Additional conditions like parents must be multi millionaires, millionaires would not do as many Singaporeans are already millionaires, or make them put upfront a million dollar deposit. That would surely work.

I think this concept has many applications and will definitely be very effective as well. I am skipping hospitalization as the concept has already been in practice and people feared being admitted to hospitals. But given the long queue, hospitalization charges can go higher to cut down the queue and waiting list.

Let’s do it, make everything less attractive when the demand is too high and causing problem. The criteria and conditions for running for Presidency is one good example, no big demand for it. Can also apply to running for MPs. Then there will be lesser hassle as many would not qualify or cannot afford to put down a big deposit to lose.