Why do I say that the story of the SMRT is the story of Singapore? Because the early leaders of the country put in place various rigorous systems for governing the nation, and the leaders who came after them assumed that these systems are fool-proof; that you only need to put in place trusted aides to maintain these systems and everything will be fine.
From Mas Selamat to the flooding; and now with the serious failure of the mass rapid transit system, we know now that these assumptions are flawed.
But the real sad news is that almost everybody seems to have no courage to say that ‘the emperor has no clothes’. At the media interview with Saw Phaik Hwa a couple of days ago, it was a journalist from the foreign media who asked her if she would resign. The reporters from the local media were all too happy to print her response without asking her all the hard questions.
The trust in the infallibility of the old systems is so deep that it seems to have contributed to the lack of regulatory oversight. I mean, how can the Transport Minister say, “I do not know if these are isolated incidents or whether there are systemic and more serious underlying issues causing these breakdowns.” How could he not know?
- http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/12/the-story-of-smrt-is-the-story-of-singapore/
From Mas Selamat to the flooding; and now with the serious failure of the mass rapid transit system, we know now that these assumptions are flawed.
But the real sad news is that almost everybody seems to have no courage to say that ‘the emperor has no clothes’. At the media interview with Saw Phaik Hwa a couple of days ago, it was a journalist from the foreign media who asked her if she would resign. The reporters from the local media were all too happy to print her response without asking her all the hard questions.
The trust in the infallibility of the old systems is so deep that it seems to have contributed to the lack of regulatory oversight. I mean, how can the Transport Minister say, “I do not know if these are isolated incidents or whether there are systemic and more serious underlying issues causing these breakdowns.” How could he not know?
- http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/12/the-story-of-smrt-is-the-story-of-singapore/