Transport Dilemma

The following is a rejected letter which i wrote to the Straits Times on 17 Dec 2007 for publication. I thanks TOC for published this letter. (Here)

I refer to the article “Transport Dilemma: bus or car?” published on 15 Dec 07.

I can’t help but recall a similar article, “ComfortDelGro to review its domestic operation” published in the Straits Times on 22 Nov 2006. (See below)

In the report, it was cited that public transport company ComfortDelGro, which is the largest transport operator here, will do “some soul-searching” and the ministry is embarking “on a review of the industry and the operator too, will embark on a self-examination exercise”.

Ironically, what was mentioned a year ago is now unearthed again, and it seems that all the suggestions that were brought up led to nowhere.

In light of this, I feel that the author missed out the most important thing which could be the reason why this teething issue is bought up from time to time and is yet unresolved, i.e. who the main boss behind the two transport operators is - which is Temasek Holdings.

Based on the two transport operators’ websites, Temasek Holdings owns more than 50% of the shares in both transport operators – SMRT and SBSTransit, and the rest of the shareholders are believed to be Government-Linked companies (GLCs).

Hence, could it be that Temasek has set a target on how much revenue they need to contribute to the “shareholders ” annually?

I would like to remind our leaders that not all issues can be resolved under a win-win situation.

In fact, the reason for allowing public transport to be converted from public service to GLC is to avoid falling into the red and becoming a burden to the government.

But it seems that after being privatised for more than two decades, it has been overdone and has caused a lot of headache for the politicians and the commuters.

Thus, may I suggest that Temasek buy over all the shares from the shareholders and merge SMRT and SBSTransit. Then work out a justifiable revenue that is enough to provide for maintenance cost, bus/train upgrading and overhead cost.

I urge the government and transport operators to focus on how to serve commuters better by all means possible, which is the best way to discourage people from owning cars.

I think Singaporeans should decide whether they want to read articles and reports about our transport dilemma every year-end and hear about “self-examination” exercises which results in nothing but increases in fares every year - or send 10 to 20 opposition members into the parliament to get the teething problem solved.

Ong Tiong Ling


SBSTransit
Shareholding Statistics as at 1 Mar 2007 (pg 96)




SMRT
Shareholding Statistics as at 21 May 2007