By: Law Kim Hwee
Many Singaporeans must have heaved a sign of deep relief when Khaw Boon Wan finally
put on his safety helmet to show up at Bishan MRT Depot. After all, there was a report that, “Singaporeans prepare for worst as Khaw Boon Wan still missing 2 days after defective MRT trains made public.”
The Sagely One (remember his ‘Butterfly Lovers’ explanation of the Sengkang Columbarium sage – his then HDB officers had assumed, yes assumed the winner of a tender to be affiliated to a religious organization), must have been meditating at Mount Silent prior to showing up. It seems the time spent invisible and incommunicado was worth it for us as he didn’t disappoint with his words of wisdom to explain why LTA’s and his transport ministry’s hands were forced on the issue of our defective trains.
Undue Panic
Declaring that trains were being returned to China for repairs due to hairline cracks could have caused undue panic, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said at the Bishan Depot on Tuesday (Jul 12).
Mr Khaw said that going public for something that was “not a major event” might have caused unnecessary panic to the layman, noting that to engineers, not all cracks are the same.
Any “undue panic” he speaks about can only originate from Singapore citizens since he’s asserted that the defects were “not a major event”. As the saga continues to unfold and we sort among the stories we are told, to Khaw’s latest spin, here’s the question that’s hard for us to hold:
So, does that mean that we, the citizens of Singapore, after 50 years of the PAP education in school and exposure to realities and reporting, mostly through the our mainstream media (ST, Mediacorp), are not able to even differentiate between a major or minor event? Between the truth or otherwise of the nature of the trains’ defects? That we are such a panicky people – all these after 50 years of nation-building (plus the million$ just expended in 2015 to celebrate and remind ourselves of how far we have come?
Really?
The Sagely One has to decide if his explanation is a valid one and, if so, what it says about us, the citizens of Singapore under PAP for 50 unbroken years.
Everyone Loves A Conspiracy Theory
…and Khaw obliges.
Mr Khaw, who is also Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure, linked the news — broken by Hong Kong’s FactWire news agency — to factions in the city with an anti-China political agenda. Having read various analyses on the controversy, Mr Khaw said: “We are caught in a crossfire and there are factions in Hong Kong who wanted to cause some difficulties for mainland China. I have no inside information on whether that is true or not, but it’s possible.”
“Unfortunately, we become a convenient bullet and collateral damage.”
What does it tell when Khaw would actually, deliberately spill the above lines for we the citizens of Singapore, his audience? What does he take us for? Does it not show just how this Foreign-Talent Minister (unlike ex-Ceylonese Mr S Rajaratnam, ex-Malaysians Mr Goh Keng Swee, Mr Toh Chin Chye, Mr Ong Pang Boon, Mr Hon Sui Sen) view us Singaporeans – with contempt?
Even though I know who I voted for, I truly believe that Democracy is the worst system there is, except for the rest – I therefore accept that we the citizens of Singapore deserve the government leaders we have collectively elected in Sep 2015.
With such senior leadership, I think some critical change should not be very far ahead for Singaporeans. Unless, of course…
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PS: Mr Tharman, you around? Please help us understand how your colleague Khaw’s explanation fits into your ‘discuss things openly, tell people the truth‘ approach to politics and leadership?
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Republished from Law Kim Hwee’s blog ‘2econdsight‘.