ISSUE VI: 6.5 million population target, unsustainable car growth

Recently, there was quite a bit of commotion going on at the House. Parliament House.

Let Veritas Post inform those who haven't heard of it in a SUBJECTIVE manner.

The Minister of National Development strongly believes that 6.5 million is the perfect number for our population a few years down the road. Perfect for competitive economic growth. I respect his view, but I will not accept it. Here's why:
1. More people = less space to work, play and live.
2. Singapore has limited space and it cannot keep reclaiming land, especially now that granite exports from Indonesia is banned.
3. Go into any shopping centre on a weekend afternoon, during a school holiday period. See the number of people there. Multiply it by two. That's what will happen if Mr Minister has it his way.
4. Go to a food court or hawker centre. Divide the number of empty tables by 2. If there are no empty tables, then multiply the number of people waiting around for seats by 2. You can also multiply your waiting time to actually start eating by 2 also.
5. Go take the MRT. Embark at Orchard station on a Saturday afternoon. Multiply the number of passengers by 2.

Drawing a high salary and living in a large house, it would of course be easy for him to say "No lah, living conditions won't be too cramped for citizens." (disclaimer: this quote is not said by him at all) It seems that to be a minister, you have to have a good sense of humour as a pre-requisite.

The next issue is not a joke. It seems like more Singaporeans are buying cars. This trend is unsustainable. It will cause a major environmental problem in this small country. The projection is 1.2 million cars by 2020.

To tackle this problem, our ministers are encouraging us to take more public transport, in fact using public transport totally so that owning a car is actually not necessary. Very nice idea, but I do not accept it again. Our minister of transport tried to put himself in the shoes of normal citizens (citizens who have to worry about their salary and income). He 'squeezed into a crowded train in Tokyo... and braved the morning crush at the Toa Payoh MRT station to board a south-bound train', sentence quoted from The New Paper, 10th March. The New Paper, however, did not say whether the minister actually sustained his efforts for more than one day. Maybe he did. Maybe he did not.

Wow. Impressive. Bravo. Sir, what about selling your car and braving the crush every morning then? How about taking the train to work then? After all, you should enjoy the fruits of your labour more often. Which means taking more public transportation. Which means having to actually possess an EZ link card. Which means having to scan the newspapers attentively to find out when is the next price hike in public transport fares, and be worried that your children may not get their birthday presents because the hike may actually affect your income considerably.

Sir, how about asking a 16 year old kid about his experiences in taking public transport? After all, he may be more experienced than you...