Tag Archives: LUI TUCK YEW

I have been using the Marina Coastal Expressway to commute to work since the second day of its opening.With the exception of the severe congestion at the exit to Central Boulevard on my first day driving along the expressway, the subsequent commutes have been relatively smooth. Many people have criticised the expressway’s design and the Land Transport Authority’s (LTA) communication exercise, on both social and mainstream media. Some were reasonable, such as those calling for more and better signage, but others have been too quick to judge.

I refer to the report, “New fare discounts for low-wage workers, those with disabilities” (Jan 17). Singaporeans have, over the years, asked the Government to give concessions to the less fortunate, and I commend it for taking the plunge. I hope there are other big-ticket items in this year’s Budget, though Singaporeans should not assume that the country is on the slippery slope to becoming a welfare state.

The Workers’ Party (WP) welcomes the new and enhanced concession schemes to make public transport more affordable for people with disabilities, senior citizens, low-wage workers, students and full-time national servicemen. These groups will finally enjoy some overdue relief for their travel needs, for which the public and the WP have lobbied for years. The concessions, however, should not be used as a sweetener to make the latest fare increases palatable.

The Workers’ Party never misses an opportunity to pander and its response to the fare review exercise was, to a large extent, predictable. First, they claimed credit for the concessions. That’s always easy. Except someone else did the real work of sorting out the math and getting the balance right. Then, it criticises the Government, for directly funding programmes like the Bus Services Enhancement Programme.

Post by All Singapore Stuff.

The government and Temasek should take this opportunity to review this model of ownership where a public service company is listed on the stock exchange. It is also ironic that many who can only depend on public transport, cannot afford equities that are listed to provide them this essential service. No doubt, public transport companies should be profit making, but should they be publicly listed?

More revenue from the transport fare hike will be channelled towards public bus operations than those of MRT trains — a move in line with the Fare Review Mechanism Committee’s recommendation to allow more fare revenue to benefit the “financially ailing” bus sector, said the Public Transport Council (PTC) yesterday. Bus operations will receive a S$48 million boost from the hike, while S$5.5 million will be allocated to MRT operations, under a new weightage in revenue allocation applied by the PTC.

If you know any Singaporean friends who own SMRT shares, please urge them to do the right thing and stop partaking in this blood sucking exercise! Not every Singaporean is born with a silver spoon in the mouth and all Singaporeans deserve to have a quality standard of living and without having such onerous fare hikes stuff down our throats! Singaporeans should stop cannibalizing fellow Singaporeans!

THE People's Action Party (PAP) is mounting a quiet counter-insurgency against its online critics. It has members going into Internet forums and blogs to rebut anti-establishment views and putting up postings anonymously. Sources told The Straits Times the initiative is driven by two sub-committees of the PAP's 'new media' committee chaired by Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen. One sub-committee, co-headed by Minister of State (Education) Lui Tuck Yew and Hong Kah GRC MP Zaqy Mohamad, strategises the campaign.

The basic salary for Train Officer in SMRT ranges from $1,250 to $2,250. There are 3 grades for Train Officers. I joined in 1995. I have reached the maximum basic pay of $2,250. I will not have any more salary increment unless I am promoted to Crew Manager Train (CMT) which is a supervisor post. There are 2 grades for CMT. The maximum basic salary of CMT is $2,900. It is promotion season in my company. We prefer to promote our front line supervisor (CMT) from amongst the 400 odd Train Officers from 3 crew stations. If CMTs are well au fait with train operations, it makes the job easier. He is able to visualise the operational issues rather than recruit an outsider who need to learn from scratch the entire train SOPs.