And I don’t mean the beverage. Funny how the media describes a defence as “stout”, like they did with Saw Phaik Hwa. I mean, I have never seen a newspaper report which said someone put up a “weak” defence….But that SMRT COI hearing is getting to be real interesting. So here’s what I hope will come out of the hearing today, after reading different media reports and their different slants.
a. That maintenance budget: Is it underspending? Saw said the parameters might have been wrong. So what were they? And why was that October board meeting called off?
b. Saw said SMRT’s checks were more stringent than required. Really?
c. Then that very intriguing issue of whether it was LTA who wanted services resumed quickly after the first big breakdown – despite reservations by SMRT. Looks like some buck passing going on….
As for the Hougang by-election, I wish media wouldn’t say the candidates were “unveiled”. We all knew who the candidates would be for quite some time. Anyway, it sort of gives the impression that the candidates were behind curtains which parted and…voila!
But it was wise of PAP’s Desmond Choo to keep making the point that he was his own man and wants to keep the campaign local. Although how much of his “own man” he will be scrutinised over the next 10 days or so when the party bigwigs start descending on Hougang – as I am sure they would. So how much talking will they do on behalf of their “own man”? More likely, they will train their guns on WP and Low Thia Kiang’s handling of the Yaw Shin Leong affair (no pun intended). Better than over-praising their man and giving him the kiss of death….BTW, are both the candidates Teochew-speaking? No one’s mentioned that so far, and it was such a big deal in the old days of Low TK. In fact, is it still a Teochew-dominant constituency?
An ex-journalist who can't get enough of the news after being in the business for 26 years
