Tag: Singapore

Hairline Cracks Found, 11 Sengkang-Punggol LRT Trains Withdrawn From Service

Hairline cracks have been found on 11 first-generation Sengkang-Punggol LRT (SPLRT) trains, SBS Transit and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said in a joint statement on Friday (Sept 9).

The trains were withdrawn from service as a precautionary measure after the discovery of the defects during SBS Transit’s fleet-wide inspection in July. Six of the trains have been repaired and returned to service.

The remaining five are expected to be reinstated by the middle of next month.

The cracks were found on the bogie frames of the trains and do not compromise its weight bearing property, said the statement. One of the core functions of the bogie frame is to support the guidance system of the trains.

Location of crack on bogie frame:

An independent assessor, TUV Rheinland, and the manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industry (MHI) had separately assessed that the defects are not safety-critical, the statement added.

Friday’s news came about two months after Hong Kong news agency FactWire broke the news that 26 China-made SMRT trains hairline cracks were found to have hairline cracks and would be sent back in batches to their manufacturer’s plant in China for repairs.

An LTA spokesperson said checks by SBS Transit were “intensified” after the discovery of cracks on the Kawasaki-Sifang MRT trains operated by SMRT. “The latest checks concluded that there are no new discovery of cracks on the other lines. The operators will continue to carry out regular inspections on all train components,” she said in response to TODAY’s queries.

The FactWire report on the SMRT train defects, which was published in early July, sparked a public outcry. Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan had described the cracks on the SMRT trains – the first of which was discovered in July 2013 – as a routine matter that had been “mis-spun into a controversy”. He added that had the hairline cracks found on the trains compromised safety or service availability, the authorities would have released the information “immediately”.

While SMRT did not withdraw the affected trains from service before they were sent for repairs, in order to minimise disruption to train operations, SBS Transit said it immediately pulled the affected trains from service as it had adequate capacity to keep operations going.

A sample of the affected bogie frame has been sent to MHI’s research and development centre in Japan to determine the cause. When contacted, an MHI spokesperson said it is unable to comment as a detailed analysis is being carried out.

The affected trains have been operating since the SPLRT was launched in 2003. There are a total of 57 trains in the SPLRT fleet and a maximum of 36 trains are deployed at any one time, SBS Transit and LTA said. The operator has been inspecting all its LRT trains on a weekly basis for any new defects.

SBS Transit and LTA said they are working with MHI to “redesign, strengthen and replace” the bogie frame structures on all 57 trains. They added: “The detailed improvement timeline is being worked out and MHI will bear the replacement costs.”

The LTA spokesperson said there was no need to ship the affected trains back to Japan as the rectification works were “less complex” as compared to the works to rectify the hairline cracks on the 26 SMRT trains.

Mountbatten Member of Parliament Lim Biow Chuan, who sits on the Government Parliamentary Committee for transport noted that the Government was more transparent in sharing information about the latest discovery of hairline cracks.

The defects of the 26 SMRT trains had “caused quite a bit of alarm” among the public as to whether there was a cover-up, he noted.

“Having learnt a precious lesson that if you don’t tell people, people (will) speculate and attribute all sorts of unsubstantiated comments about why (the) trains are being brought back,” said Mr Lim. “So to avoid any kind of speculation, then I think (LTA and SBS Transit) felt that in this case (it would be) better to tell… although they assessed (the hairline cracks) not to be a major issue.”

Source: www.todayonline.com

September 10, 2016
Advice For All Singaporean Brothers: Choose Driver Vocation For NS, You Won’t Regret It

First….ORD loh!

Ok for all you bros who not yet enlist, now you all can choose from 33 different vocations. No need scared ah..

I got very good advice for you. Maybe the best advice you will get on your NS.

Go become driver! Seriously there is nothing more useful in NS then picking up driving. The best thing is you dont haf to pay for it.

Doesnt matter if you in the end cannot automatically convert your licence to a civilian one. With that skill, chances are you’ll breeze through the lessons at the driving schools so you still can save money

Dont be put off by smart alecks telling you that it might affect your career if your NS vocation is not good. They say better have good vocation so that your prospects will be brighter, especially if you intend to join the civil service. actually if you don’t have any intention of to sign on with uniform group then you dont have to worry. you can still be HOD or reach manager level. you can still become doctor or lawyer or scientists or lecturers. dats teh fact lah bros. You want to become Uber driver also can!

Go ahead discuss with your parents. Think about what you want to do. But remember, the best choice is to become a driver!

Singaporean Son

[Reader Contribution]

September 9, 2016
WANTED: New Chief To Shake Up Singapore Football

IS THERE such a man? If there is, will he step forward?

Singapore football is sick. It has been for far too long. It has come to a point that with the elections for a new Football Association of Singapore president and council looming, there is a numbing fear nothing much will change. Meaning, it will be status quo.

Not to sully the standing of the serving president and council members, but they’ve done what they could and it’s time to bid them on their way. Stay away from the elections.

And this goodbye must be extended to advisers who have overstayed their welcome that memory forgets from when.

When a new president and his team are picked, their first job must be to overhaul the management of Singapore football from top down. They need to clean house and those associated with it. He … or perhaps, she … must not be easily swayed.

But who can this person be?

A veteran football administrator I met recently was foreboding with his answer: We lack talent. By a long shot we have one person, but it is wishful thinking.

And this is the sorry state of Singapore football. It has been run like a Soviet KGB secret service outfit for so long that only few know what is going on within its inner sanctum and are afraid to speak up.

Those who can shake things up at Jalan Besar are sick to their stomachs with the sport that they want to stay away from it as far as they can.

A few well-meaning people are putting teams together in a bid to stand for elections. They are passionate, and want Singapore football to succeed and bring fans back. But they are potentially a disaster in the making.

You can’t run Singapore football on passion alone. That’s like trying to drive a car only on petrol fumes. It grounds to a halt immediately.

Every passionate Singapore football fan has an idea on how to go about fixing the local game. Ideas are dime a dozen.

Passion must come with an acute technical knowledge of the game. What drives it. What fuels it. What funds it. What motivates players. And at the end of it all, what excites fans to want to back it.

And you must have the dare to act on them.

The sitting football management has done some good things for Singapore football. Let’s not deny this. Bringing in Michel Sablon to chart a new course to return it to health was one of them.

But overall, the current FAS lot has lost the plot. The empty stands say so.

Is there a man, or woman, who dare turn Singapore football on its head and shake it up? You need some arrogance to get this done. The game really needs it.

If you tick the boxes, stand up for the FAS presidential elections.

Source: http://iandecotta.com

September 9, 2016
Ismail L.A. : Polemik, Jenaka Dan Mati Pucok Presiden Pilihan

?? ALMARHUM YUSOFF ISHAK & SINGAPURA

Semasa saya kecil saya selalu terdengar dan suka memerhatikan perbualan orang2 tua dengan arwah bapa saya berborak2 perihal politik Singapura dan selalu nama Presiden Singapura yang pertama iaitu Almarhum Yusoff Bin Ishak disebut.

Waktu itu saya kurang mengerti soal politik semasa tetapi saya selalu dengar mereka menyebut Almarhum sebagai patung bernyawa, Presiden tidak guna, batang pisang dan lain2 lagi yang kurang enak, tidak pernah ada pujian dari lidah mereka.

Sekarang baharu saya faham dan mengerti situasi pada masa itu dan apa yang selalu Pemerintah war-warkan sikap Almarhum sebagai Presiden yang berjiwa raayat sebenarnya banyak juga raayat yang tidak menyukai, mempersenda diri dan jawatan nya.

Suatu tugas yang besar yang tidak mungkin dapat menyenangkan hati kepada semua lapisan masyarakat Singapura pada waktu itu.

Jika polemik pemilihan Presiden untuk dibahaskan tahun ini supaya orang Melayu kita dapat sekali lagi menjawat jawatan itu dengan ehsan Pemerintah maka saya ingat kerendahan Presiden dimata masyarakat akan lebih lagi, bukan sahaja dikalangan Melayu sendiri malahan daripada masyarakat yang lain2 juga.

Ini kerana hampir semua orang Melayu sedar yang Pemerintah hanya menpergunakan diri mereka dengan permainan politik kerana takut menerima kenyataan dimana Presiden pemilihan Pemerintah dalam pilihanraya Presiden kali ini akan kalah.

Jika Pemerintah benar2 ikhlas mahukan bangsa minoriti Melayu memegang jawatan yang tertinggi itu kenapa Pemerintah menukar skim pemilihan langsung oleh konsensus Parlimen kepada pengundian raayat dimana umum semua tahu yang masyarakat kita belum lagi setara dengan kebolehan masyarakat bangsa2 lain.

Hairan Pemerintah hanya mulai sedar bila mereka tersepit dan kini segala alasan tidak akan dapat memenangi lagi hati nurani masyarakat Melayu walaupun dihadiahkan jawatan Presiden itu.

Presiden Melayu kita kali ini jika ianya terpilih akan dipersendakan dan kali ini akan lebih gelak dan memalukan lagi daripada yang dahulu dan puisi ‘Mati Pucok’ dari saudara Damanhuri Bin Abas politikus dari SDP sangat jelas kebenaran nya.

Poetry by Mr Damanhuri Abas

Mati Pucuk – Sempena Bulan Bahasa

Maruah bangsa tidak berharga.
Bila pemimpin dipilih sesuka.
Mati pucuk pimpinan bangsa.
Tinggal boneka bahan jenaka.

Diangkat mahkota dibilang Raja.
Mulut terbuka tanpa suara.
Disuruh senyum Raja gembira.
Kuasa konon ditipu bangsa.

Dimata semua pembodek Kuasa.
Melayu layu tidak semua.
Akan ku tuntut Maha Kuasa
Biar ku papa Maruahku Ada.

Mati pucuk pimpinan bangsa.

✏️ Ismail L. A.

Source: Mohamed Ismail Ismail

September 9, 2016
More Diversity In Voices Need To Be Heard On Racism In Singapore

This article, “Racism in Singapore: Stop telling us minorities how to react to it“. has been shared widely, and I definitely think it is an important voice. I see a growing number of articles/conversations about racism, and a wider range of people speaking up, which I think are encouraging signs that there is more awareness and willingness to talk about race in Singapore.

I hope the conversation doesn’t fixate on or stagnate at individualised, interpersonal instances of microaggressions, exclusion or privilege. Of course, these experiences aren’t separate from systemic racism, and are in fact deeply linked to them, but the connection often isn’t made as strongly as it could be.

People switching to Chinese in conversations, friends telling racist jokes, etc are definitely significant and we should keep talking about these things and how they affect us, as well as how we can respond to them. We’ve all had these experiences and can feel solidarity around them.

But I’m also interested in conversations that I don’t hear as much – about how Malay and Tamil people are overrepresented in prisons, whether they’re more likely to be profiled/picked up for certain crimes than Chinese people are, how Malay students are grossly underrepresented in universities, and what the barriers racial minorities face in accessing education, housing and jobs are.

I’m interested in critiquing more closely, how our cultures and people are portrayed as backward, lazy, violent, uncivilised and parasitic in national narratives, and whether we can organise to push for anti-discrimination laws, for greater political representation and more in-depth analysis on how the media perpetuates harmful stereotypes about race.

How many of the 1 in 10 families that live in poverty in Singapore are Malay or Tamil, and how much harder is it for racial minorities to experience intergenerational social mobility? The narrative continues to be that minorities need to work harder to catch up, and some minority groups are held up as “model minorities” and pitted against others. The recent study on Singaporeans’ receptivity to a president of a different race showed that both Indian and Malay respondents would prefer a Chinese candidate over each other. Is this what the success of a divide and rule approach looks like? Solidarity amongst racial minorities is low, and there’s plenty of racism to be explored there too.

Social problems like unplanned teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and gang culture are ghettoised, stigmatised and pinned to the cultural deficit of minority communities rather than to structural discrimination, alienation and poverty. They’re also not given the same centrality in social policy as problems like gambling, that are more common in Chinese communities, are (as Alfian Sa’at’s play ‘GRC’ points out so well).

Race needs to be a lens we apply to every social phenomenon we study, and we need more race disaggregated data about everything. The government, certain think tanks and the media are quick to look at race when it is to pin an issue as an “Indian problem” or “Malay problem”, but not to pinpoint racial discrimination.

To take one example, there’s been a lot of discussion about bullying in Singapore schools – if studies on this also looked at whether racial minorities face more abuse/different types of abuse in school (I’m sure it’s true), anecdotes of interpersonal racism that appear in articles like this would have more context and meaning, and we would be able to offer deeper analysis and make stronger arguments for change. It doesn’t just stop at “my friends needs to be more sensitive” but allows us to demand that MOE, schools and educators take a proactive stance in addressing racial discrimination on a nationwide, school-wide or at least classroom-wide level.

But maybe there is a different point to be made here too. While there is more interest in discussing race, while there are more voices addressing this now than before, are they diverse enough? Many of these voices, including mine, are middle-class voices. And I believe there are more important voices to listen to, when it comes to racism. The same way that middle-class feminism can silence working class women’s struggles, race consciousness that is not informed by class struggle can be a hazard. I am excited to explore possibilities for organising, for collective action, and to not allow individualised identity politics (or the “cult of individualism”) to become self-limiting or deteriorate into navel gazing.

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

September 9, 2016