What excuse will the PAP give now?

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Friday, 25 June 2010

Singapore Democrats

When Bukit Timah Road flooded in 2009, Environment Minister Yaacob Ibrahim told us it was a once-in-50-years freak incident. When Orchard Road was flooded, the problem was debris in a culvert blocking the water flow.

Always an excuse, never acknowledgement of failure of planning. This morning's floods - now over several parts of Singapore including Upper Thomson Road, Bukit Timak Road (again), Boon Lay Road - have exposed the PAP's hubris yet again.

When will the ministers stand up like a true leaders and accept responsibility, apologise to the public and make sure that genuine effort is made to alleviate the problems. If the situation warrants it (as in the case of Mr Wong Kan Seng over the repeated security breaches), the minister should be replaced.

Instead, we see the PAP making the unseemly move of blaming the public servants. When Mas Selamat escaped, it was the police officers. When the MRT depot was broken into, into was the SMRT. When Orchard Road was flooded, it was the PUB.

Public servants take directions from the PAP politicians. The ministers determine how much resources is made available for infrastructure maintenance and improvement. Without proper planning and foresight from the political leadership, things go wrong.

This is why the PAP ministers, not civil servants, must be held accountable.

The Orchard Road flood was blamed on a blocked culvert, not a failed canal system. Translation: The former meant that someone at the PUB was not vigilant enough to make sure that the drain remained unobstructed, the latter was lack of planning on the part of the politicians.

Were there more blocked culverts in this morning's floods? Or will the Government finally take responsibility.

Through all these incidents the Prime Minister has, and is continuing, to hide. Mr Lee Hsien Loong has not uttered a word about the recent floods and the security breach into tthe MRT depot. He has shown absolutely zero leadership.

When there are accolades the ministers stand right in front to absorb the fragrance, using it to increase their salaries. When troubles come, they hide and push the blame to others. Welcome to the world of the PAP.

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Comments (7)

Fri 25 Jun 2010 12:23 PM | Tan Tai Wei

When the "blocked culvert" reason was given, I wondered how that could explain such widespread flooding. There had to be the coincidence of multiple such blockages!

Then I thought I wasn't really knowledgeable about such things.

But the thing is repeated this morning. Culvert still blocked?

Fri 25 Jun 2010 1:57 PM | orange

Singapore's dranage system needs a bypass operation just like Khaw Boon Wan.

Instead of focusing on the fact that the body is unhealthy because of years of not eating the right food, they now say that it's the fault of the fats blocking the veins.

Singapore has world class million dollar ministers paid to deflect responsibilities. Why are we paying million for monkeys when we can pay peanuts to get them too?

Fri 25 Jun 2010 6:16 PM | maxchew - Ministers or Comedians?

Following the 2 "freak incidents", i.e. the MRT break-in and the 1st deluge flooding at Orchard River.....I'm sure a PAP Minister or an "expert" employed as apologist will suddenly come out soon to declare the 2nd deluge flooding as also just another "freak incident" but without the "once in 50 years"(malu already).

Hello, are our PAP leaders really Govt Ministers or Comedians?

Fri 25 Jun 2010 9:48 PM | April Fool

First it was a freak incident. Now with many more freak incidents set to come before 2010 ends, maybe it's a freak year 2010. I certainly hope the GE will usher in a freak result. Then I'm going to 'freak out' if the army is called in.

Fri 25 Jun 2010 11:05 PM | Robox

Has been it been 50 years already? My, how time flies!

Mon 28 Jun 2010 12:05 PM | | quantum - S'pore can't be flood-free

IT IS not realistic to expect Singapore to be completely flood-free given its tropical climate but the Government will continue to implement new drainage works to prevent widespread floods, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday.

In his first comments since the two flash floods this month, he said it would any attempt to wipe flood flooding her here would be very costly, requring huge spending and tracts of land.

'If you are going to do that, you will need huge tracts of land put aside for huge monsoon drains, which will be empty most of the time, (and) the infrastructure will cost a lot of money and it is not worth it,' he said at the opening of the new facilities at Lower Seletar Reservoir.

A more realistic objective, he added, is to prevent widespread and prolonged flooding, and limit the risk to lives and damage to property.

Assuring Singaporeans that the Government 'will continue to implement new drainage works, to improve the design of the drainage systems and deal with more intense storms', PM Lee said: 'But I don't think it is possible in Singapore to expect the place to be completely free of floods,' he said, as heavy downpours are very much part of the climate for an 'island in the tropics'.

He also stressed the need to have contingency plans for unusually heavy rain to ensure swift response in pinpointing the problem areas, dealing with them and 'putting them right', and ensuring that the massive floods of the scale that wreaked havoc in Orchard Road, Thomson Road, Bukit Timah and Tanjong Katong would not happen again.

'We have to learn from these episodes, do post-mortems, find out what happened, and upgrade our infrastructure and systems,' he said.

Tue 29 Jun 2010 12:14 AM | pwaywifyou - Read the PM message on yahoo sg

Basically the entire "speech" was a load of BS ….. and that just topped the Guinness World Records of been the “MOST EXPENSIVE” … “NO” i’ve ever heard !!!

"Singaporean please lower your standards and learn to
accept that the government needs to be highly paid to maintain their current standards."

Its the same with HDB , Ministry of Home Affairs and the PUB .....
They all are telling you "NO" !!!!!