The free ride is an historical break through

Since the 1960s when many things were free though the country was poor, with very little or nothing in the national reserves, it is a big thing today to have free travel on the MRT even with conditions. In those days, there were free medical and dental for students and the citizens, some enjoy free school fees, some had free food, free tuition by volunteers, free movies, not having to pay to visit Pulau Blankang Mati, free visits to the museums etc etc. Many things were free then.

The free travel on the MRT must have taken many by surprise, and many must still be skeptical and wondering how the Govt will be taking back from them through some other ways.

I was skeptical too when this was first proposed by Janil Puthucheary. I was afraid that it would shift the jam in the train to an earlier hour when school children will be going to schools. My fear will be the hordes of foreign workers jamming the trains for the free ride. I can understand how important it is to them. Every dollar saved is a big deal and plenty of money to them.

The introduction of this free travel comes with some modifications which will target the cause of the morning rush hours, ie, office workers all going one way, to the heart of the city. The administrators have done some thinking and fine tuned the proposal to just address the office crowd going into the city. Commuters not going into the city would not benefit from the free travel scheme. This in a way will not lead to a mad rush when everyone will want to take advantage of the free travel and jam the train in the early hours of the day. Those travelling from the East to the West or vice versa or to other parts of the island will not be affected by this free travel in any significant way.

The solution is tailor made and hopefully it will help to relieve the problems of peak hour travel but not contributing too much to early morning jams for the early birds. The one year trial period should give the administrators time to review and tweak the system further to achieve its aim of freeing the train a little and give the commuters more breathing space.

What is important here is paradigm shift, a change in the thinking of the govt. You don’t need too clever leaders but leaders with ideas to improve the lives of the people. With so much money collected to ease traffic congestion, giving a little back in free travel for a good reason needs not be tabooed. Let the administrators or civil servants work out the details to make a new idea work. There is a separation of roles, with the leaders brainstorming ideas to serve the people and the administrators or civil servants doing the nitty gritty. It should not be the leaders or Govt meddling with the nitty gritty when they don’t really have the time for it, given the spread of their portfolios and the limited time they have on hand. Think housing…think immigration, think 6.9m, think economic growth….

And if this free train ride is successful, it only costs the govt $10m. Quite cheap for a solution to make travelling a bit more pleasant for the commuters. There are many things that the Govt can do to make life better for the citizens without incurring a walloping sum of money like hundreds of millions. What is $10m anyway?

Ban Ki Moon should strongly condemn US organised crimes of war of aggression and terrorism against other countries

Ban Ki Moon should strongly condemn US organised crimes of violence, terrorism and wars of aggression against other countries


Ban Ki Moon, the secretary general of the United Nations  condemned the Boston Maraton Explosions as an act of senseless savage violence and terrorism. And he is right and no body will dispute with what he said because any decent person will see this as obviously so.And he is also right to empathise with the victims. But he is very hypocritical and there is something very wrong with him. Did he ever condemn the endless acts of mass terrorism and violence conducted by the Evil Empire via CIA and the Pentagon against other innocent countries. The Boston Maraton Explosion is child's play compare to the senseless mass killings of thousands of innocent people carried out by sorties of American drones in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and  some other countries. The trouble thing is that when the Americans kill they never regret and show remorse but simply brush off their killings of innocent peoples as collateral damages. The little acts of terrorism in America may be carried out by small disparate groups of dissatisfied people which could be the Americans themselves who feel the great injustice of the American state. On the other hand American acts of violence and terrorism and mass killings of other peoples and countries are carried out by the American government. The American state will always justify their rights to do do evil things in organised state terrorism and senseless and endless wars of aggression against other countries. The American state started with mere thirteen small provinces. But right from the beginning of its independence from its forbears, Imperial Britain , it has never stopped its well organised acts of violence and terrorism and wars of aggression against other states and countries. It is through its wanton wars of aggression and annexation that America reach its present size. The present American state organised crimes of acts of violence and terrorism and wars of aggression is a historical extension of their dastardly acts of murder and genocide of more than eighty-five million or ninety-five percent of the native American Indians. By far they have been carrying out their killings and wars of aggression with impunity and they think they can continue to do so without retribution. Hope this time they will be mercilessly wrong for as the saying goes, "Push the tiger against the wall and it will fight back." Ban Ki Moon should not pretend to be a good man. He should condemn all American state organised terrorism, drone attacks and uncall for wars of aggression against other countries .  Ban Ki Moon should know that time is running out and unless he stops the Americans from creating and fomenting the Korean tension he must know that not only Korea will be totally destroyed but the resultant nuclear wars will destroy the whole world and humanity.

Southernglory1

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.