Public transport another SCAM by LIE KY

RH:

1. One would have thought that on such a tiny island of 650 sq km, it would be easy and quick to develop a decent bus and MRT system, given that Singapore has probably the highest density of people in the world to patronise such a system. I have written that 'buses can come every 15 min or so [as alleged] to every bus stop and still collect enough boarding passengers to make a tidy profit'. Yet the entire screwed-up system is testimony to typical PAP stupidity and greed.

2. Why stupidity? On such a tiny island, just 42 km x 23 km, it should not take more than an hour to travel from anywhere to anywhere, even by bus, let alone dedicated-track MRT trains. Yet the geniuses in the PAP have developed a system of Bus Interchanges where you have to take a Feeder Bus from your home or office, after waiting at least 15 min, that goes NOWHERE -- except to the nearest Bus Interchange. This ride typically takes 10-20 min depending on where you board, as it goes circuitously in circles to collect more fares [as in money] and NOT straight to the Bus Interchange.

3. At the Bus Interchange, you wait another 15 min or so [I am relying on the officially given average waiting time of 15 min or so but experience says it can be a lot longer -- 1 blogger recently complained of a 25 min wait -- all along the entire experience of getting from A to B]. Then you board your bus that travels out of your estate. This is thought by the geniuses to be a 'long' journey, hence this Feeder-Interchange-Interchange-Feeder System. Although we must try to remember that Singapore island is at maximum, 42 km wide, this arrangement means that any 'LONG' [ha, ha, ha, but it's no laughing matter to the poor daily commuters] journey is thus done from Bus Interchange to a slightly further Bus Interchange, typically, in the next town or estate. Which may be as near as just 10 km way! On this tiny island.

4. Then, from that second Bus Interchange, you again wait another 15 min for the last ride in a Feeder to your home or office. Thus, the entire journey, which, by car or any wheeled vehicle, would take no more than 30-45min, TAKES OVER 90 MIN, or even up to 2 hours. You wait a] for the Feeder, then b] at the Interchange c] at another Interchange, before finally boarding the last Feeder home.

5. Such F-I-I-F commutes mean not only more waiting time, but also more ride time on each and every bus as each bus must go along profitable routes, meaning it must pick up the maximum number of paying commuters, and, of course, not straight to where you want to go. Also, more commutes inevitably mean more bus fares, as even the geniuses must recognise. [But this is so profitable to the 2 Govt Companies running this scam that this is not considered a problem and so, never mentioned or even thought of as a problem].

6. In the old days, before PAP stupidity became paramount and overriding, before there was the MRT that must be made into a success, meaning -- in Singapore -- profitable, [so the MRT may even be a bad thing the way the PAP does it!] there were a whole panoply of buses running from place to place and you could usually take a SINGLE bus, so much cheaper and faster, to wherever you want to go, especially if you start from a dense estate and travelling to a popular place, like an office in the city. Only if you are from a sparse estate and travelling to an unpopular place would you have a problem, in which case, you'd probably take a taxi, or exercise your ingenuity and initiative to hitch a ride or share cabs or cars -- solving your transport problem without needing recourse to an Almighty Nanny Govt. This 'sparse' problem doesn't exist any more today because there aren't any estate that is sparse, except the rich areas like Holland Road and Bukit Timah, but then, there, they all drive big Lexus and so have no public transport problem, except, maybe, their maids, who usually cannot command the use of the second or third family BMW!

7. This 'direct to destination' efficiency is the case in Hongkong today. Hongkong has, all along, free competition even in buses. So the system that evolved there became so good that you could always hail a mini-bus from your estate and go to any popular place direct, in just one cheap, direct trip. And because the mini-buses are small in passenger capacity, and not allowed to have passengers standing, the mini-buses need not go on long, circuitous routes to pick up maximum passenger load to be profitable. No standing also means that each and every passenger has enough nice PERSONAL SPACE, very important in modern, crowded living. Another taxi-like advantage -- the Hongkong mini-buses need no bus stops. So you hail the one you want from the kerb, which may be just outside your block. Then ask the driver to drop you right at your destination kerb. Thus, almost door to door like a taxi! This is a huge, advantageous feature in public transport. To see just how huge, compare with our PAP geniuses' system in Singapore where buses MUST STOP AT BUS STOPS ONLY. This means a walk of 10-15 min to the bus stop in blistering sun or bucketfuls of rain. Then a repeat at your destination bus stop. Often, during traffic crawls, when you are driving behind a bus, the bus and you inch along, taking minutes to travel the say, 10 metres to the bus stop whereupon the bus then stops and take another minute or 2 for passengers to alight, while you wait impatiently behind until the bus moves off. In Hongkong, passengers wanting to alight during such a crawl would immediately get off and the mini-bus wouldn't then need to stop at a bus stop for another minute or so.

Note that mini-buses are small, so alighting of passengers is very quick and do not hold up traffic behind. While at Singapore bus stops, each of which serves several bus services, [all big capacity buses] buses keep 'bunching' [another problem] so may queue back up OUT of the bus bay onto the road lane and thus hold up traffic coming along behind. This 'bunching', very serious during peak hours, means that commuters waiting at the bus stop often cannot see the bus service numbers of the buses queueing further back and so have moments of anxiety of missing the bus -- they often do, when the bus they want have no alighting passengers and simply zoom past. And since buses may not alight passengers except strictly at the bus stop itself, and the buses are big capacity, buses further back queue some time for the front ones to move off [which is not easy especially during peak hours as they have to filter onto the next lane, thus slowing everything down and therefore hold up traffic, even creating jams]. Comparing free Hongkong and dictatorial Singapore, see how genuine competition, putting commuters' interests first, and intelligent profit-making can evolve such a superior system? Whereas central planning in Singapore, putting profits first and commuters last [they are just really there to be milked for all they are worth] have resulted in a system that would have cost votes except that Singaporeans are intimidated [fearocracy], the PAP Govt gives out thousands in cash every election, blackmails [to leave Opposition-won constituencies out of national housing estates upgrading] and even rigs elections outright when they lose, by stuffing fake ballots, as witnessed by Mr David DUCLOS and his lawyer friend.

SO, IN EFFECT, HONGKONG MINI-BUSES ARE MORE LIKE TAXIS, GOING DIRECTLY TO THE DESTINATION, UNLIKE OUR HUGE, MEGA BUSES THAT MUST GO CIRCUITOUS ROUTES TO MAXIMISE LOADS. [We have huge Bendy Buses that combine 2 buses in 1, joined in the middle; plus huge Double Deckers. The stupidity of equating BIG with BETTER is plain. And typically PAP. Which is why LIE is so determined to make BIG Govt companies, to the detriment of SMEs, which are despised as "small" and being "unprofessional" and thus "unimpressive". This is one reason why LIE has wiped out SMEs and prevented their growth. Another reason is, of course, political, as is everything in Singapore. Too many successful SMEs will mean too many citizens who are no longer under the economic yoke of the PAP. Horrors! Cannot allow that. So wipe out SMEs and discourage too many independent entrepreneurs. Every time a small business succeeds, like the small handphone shops, the PAP Govt companies immediately launch their own copycat chains to compete UNFAIRLY with the originals, thus reducing their space and thus keeping them small. Oh, why is it that LIE Kuan Yew could copy so many things from Hongkong, from high rise public flats, to financial centre to MTR, etc, and yet does not have the brain or rather, the HONESTY to see all this?]

8. There is more LIE KY stupidity [believe me, he is involved in every single decision in Singapore. Former Minister LIM Kim San even related to the Straits Times that the early Cabinet even discussed the kind of Squat or Sit toilet bowls to have in HDB flats. As usual, LIE and Cabinet got it all shortsightedly and stupidly wrong -- typically -- and chose Squat. (50-50 and got it wrong!). So for about 20 years, HDB dwellers had to squat. No problem for the young, fit, healthy and unpregnant but if you are weak from sickness, age or disability, or pregnant, squatting can be dangerous even. Only when after about 2 decades, when the geniuses realised that residents were spending hard earned money to change the Squat bowls to Sit bowls did they finally realised that this must mean something, and only then did the HDB started putting in Sit toilets in their new flats.

9. While I'm on the HDB, let me relate how, typically, my mother-in-law's Block 29 in Havelock Road has no less than 5 lifts in the very long block. BUT 4 OF THE 5 LIFTS OPEN AT THE SAME 1; 5; 9; AND 13 FLOORS ONLY. Ha, ha, ha, lucky for those living on the 1, 5, 9 and 13 Floors for they can choose any of 4 lifts to take. But, ha, ha, ha, all the rest living on the unlucky floors have NO lifts but must walk up or down. Note that there is absolutely NO cost savings in this stupid arrangement. It would have cost EXACTLY the same money to have say, 1 lift doing Even Floors, another Odd Floors, etc, or some such arrangement SO THAT EVERY FLOOR IS SERVED. The fact that there is 1 Central Lift there that goes to Floors 1; 6; 10; 14; shows that someone must have considered this. BUT TRUE TO CENTRAL PLANNING, THE PAP GOVT DOES WHAT IT THINKS BEST -- "NEVER MIND WHAT THE PEOPLE THINK" [LIE KY] -- AND HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO REGARD FOR THE USERS' NEEDS OR INTERESTS AND THIS REMAINS TRUE TO THIS DAY].

10. Coming back to our 'world-class' Feeder System, how did the Feeder System come about? The system of Bus Interchanges was deemed to be critical in PROVIDING PASSENGER LOADS TO THE MRT! When the MRT was first built, some bus commuters preferred to take the buses because they were cheaper and sometimes even faster. So, in typical LIE KY PAP fashion, the Govt decided that they must be FORCED to take the MRT, in order for it to be profitable. SO THE SYSTEM OF FEEDER BUSES WERE REALLY TO "FEED" [OFFICIAL TERMS, "FEEDER", "FEED", etc] RELUCTANT BUS PASSENGERS INTO TAKING THE MORE EXPENSIVE MRT! [Note: all Bus Interchanges are also MRT stations]. Today, the MRT has expanded to become so convenient that it would be profitable even without such 'forced feeding' BUT THE DICTATORIAL NATURE OF THE REGIME MEANS THAT IT IS PAINSTAKINGLY SLOW TO RECOGNISE THIS, WHICH TO THIS DAY, IT HASN'T. Dictators never admit mistakes so never reverse them until forced to. Since LIE KY is an Absolute Dictator, nobody dares tell him he screwed up and so he never reverses policies until the examples of other countries force him to.

11. And because the long-suffering Singaporean commuters have been cowed into a totally uncomplaining, unthinking lot, fearful of even seeming to criticise the almighty PAP, with GodLEE powers and wisdom who cannot be wrong, and the PAP media did such a brilliant job of impressing on every impressionable mind that LIE can never be wrong, nor his Govt, and that Singapore is the epitome of efficiency, things could not even be questioned and therefore, could not be changed. And thus, the status quo.

12. The greed of the 2 Govt bus companies also kept the whole system stuck in the rut. Why change when you can -- without objection except for some easily suppressed and censored or ignored, commuter grumbling -- raise bus fares and MRT fares every year or so? [7 fare raises in 8 years]. The Govt regulator, like all Govt regulators regulating Govt companies, cannot and will not question any fare increases, since the top honchos in both regulator and regulatee are the same PAP men, all very cosily incestuous, known to each other and often moving from one body to the other, and of course, all drawing obscene pays for not thinking at all, let alone out of the box. Let the poor commuters suffer. Just "manage their expectations" [PAP MP].

13. LIE KY's wife is also said to have huge shareholdings in 1 of the 2 Govt bus companies. So may others of the LIE famiLEE, their Cabinet and PAP cronies, including even top judges, who draw Ministerial-level salaries and are very much part of the Elite, plus all THEIR families. Thus, these Govt company cash cows are not to be trifled with, regulator or no. Just keep doing the same old thing. Just keep raising fares so that the Govt companies will continue to be very profitable, so that they return big dividends to the LIE KY wife and others, so that the share values keep rising so that LIE KY and others' shareholdings keep increasing in capital gains, which will be very profitable should they sell off. This is true of all the GLCs. Why invest in other stocks or overseas when these are so uncertain? In Singapore, the PAP Govt can really CONTROL the profitability of the GLC monopolies and so, investing in these is a sure bet. A total no-brainer.

14. There is a term for this kind of no-risk investment. It's called SCAM. Or even CORRUPTION. Or CHEATING the people. A cosy arrangement of the Govt companies commanding monopolies, having huge shares held by LIE KY and cronies, who are assured of no-risk dividends and capital appreciation, ABSOLUTELY NO RISK because these companies are not so much COMPANIES as SCAM STRUCTURES, that can keep raising fares and profits and fees and charges at will, regulator or no. THIS IS THE STORY OF SINGAPORE AND THE ABUSED SINGAPOREAN. For other scams, read Mr LEONG Sze Hian's polite but excellent analyses of the CPF scam or some other bloggers' postings on the HDB flat pricing and Healthcare scams, etc. Even the taxi companies [and their fare prices], also Govt companies, are part of all this 'invisible hand of the central planner'. In short, almost every organisation or institution set up by LIE is a scam of some kind. LIE can be said to be operating a Govt TO ENRICH THEMSELVES THROUGH A MULTIPLICITY OF GOVT AND GOVT COMPANY MONOPOLIES.

And, as Machiavelli taught, whose lessons LIE KY and his Cronies have all learnt only too well, 'the tightest control of a population is when the govt is kept rich while the people are kept poor'. So this deliberate impoverishment of the people, except for a small, necessary Elite, serves for an iron grip political control as well. Migrate? LIE KY had it all worked out. He boasted that over 80% of Singaporeans CANNOT migrate. [Although surveys prove that almost every young Singaporean WANTS to migrate!]. Thus, most are captives to his regime, whose longevity he ensures with crooked election procedures, harassment and bankruptcy of able opponents, and outright stuffing of ballot boxes when he loses, as in the 1997 Cheng San GRC ward of 5 Parliamentary seats. LIE has absolutely no scruples, remember? He cannot afford a single one because scruples require moral and ethical currency and he hasn't any.

15. Thus, between PAP stupidity and PAP greed, the Singaporean commuter is truly screwed. He pays 4 bus fares in the F-I-I-F system when he should have paid just one. His bus trips take 2 hours when it should have been 30 min. He pays bus and MRT fares that rise almost every year, inexorably, without being able to complain or take an alternative. Since the 2 Govt bus companies also own the MRT system and they arrange it such that he really has no alternative but to pay and pay, every time the fares are raised. He has no choice. He has no alternative. [Every time an MRT route is established, all the bus services that could provide an alternative to the MRT are discontinued, so that the MRT would be profitable and have no bus competition. This is central planning at its best].

16. It would not be so bad if the above is just applicable to public transport. BUT IN EVERY SINGLE GOVT AND GOVT COMPANY SERVICE, THE SAME SCENARIO IS REPEATED. GOVT MONOPOLIES, WHETHER DIRECTLY BY THE GOVT OR BY GOVT COMPANIES, THE SAME THING REALLY, ENJOY COSY MONOPOLIES, DEVELOP STUPID POLICIES AND STUPID SYSTEMS, ALL WITH THEIR HANDS DEEP INTO EVERY SINGAPOREAN's POCKET, TO LOOT AT WILL, THE SINGAPOREAN DISENFRANCHISED AND VOICELESS, A VICTIM WITHOUT ANY RECOURSE OR ALTERNATIVE, NUMBED BY PROPAGANDA INTO QUIESCENCE, ALLOWING THE LIE REGIME TO DO ANYTHING ANY WHICH WAY THEY LIKE. THIS IS THE REAL SINGAPORE STORY. A STORY LIE KUAN YEW WILL NEVER WRITE. BECAUSE HE IS TOO STUPID, ULTIMATELY, TO SEE ALL THESE GREAT OCEANS OF TRUTH WASHING UPON HIS ISLAND.

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RH: MY ACQUAINTANCE, A FORMER POLICE INSPECTOR, AND HIS LAWYER FRIEND, EYEWITNESSED LEE KUAN YEW RIGGING THE 1997 CHENG SAN GRC ELECTION. READ MORE AT MY BLOG ENTITLED "I CAME, I SAW, I SOLVED IT" :

http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/

[ALSO AT THE ABOVE BLOG, LIE KUAN YEW's LIES, WRONGFUL JAILING, TORTURE AND BEATING TO DEATH OF INNOCENT POLITICAL PRISONERS]

READ ALSO MARTYN SEE's INTERVIEW WITH ME AT:

http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/

MY ARCHIVE OF WORKS AT:

http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/