Can't fix the Bukit Panjang LRT problems? Easy, just scrap the whole system and start a new one!
And while waiting for the new system which will take years to study, propose, design, procure and implement, the passengers will tend to be more forgiving and even accept any failure of the existing system as a necessary routine. Few Singaporeans will be interested to know why the need to scrap a relatively new transport system. 17 years is a short time for a rail system! If not for the government's profit-seeking COE system, many Singaporeans' cars would have continued to run smoothly after 20 years on the roads!
The PAP Government has been using such short-cut approach or quick-fix solution frequently.
When the government couldn't fix Singaporean employees' wage problems, the ministers take the citizens out of their jobs and replaced them with cheap employees from foreign countries. Many Singaporeans who lost their better-paid jobs were misled to believe they were retrenched due to "globalisation".
Similarly, when the PAP Government found that it could not sustain reporting a high government surplus forever, it scrapped the old system of cost based subsidy and started a new system of "market-rate subsidy". Government services were privatised with their original public missions scrapped. Singaporeans who are unhappy with paying high medical bills are misled to console themselves that what they are paying is still below "market rates".
Editor's Note:
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