Some transactions were not found to be satisfactorily explained and had been referred to the Commercial Affairs Department. For those who are not familiar with what the CAD does, a check on their website returned the following:

The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) is the principal white-collar crime investigation agency in Singapore. It safeguards Singapore’s integrity as a world-class financial and commercial centre through vigilant and professional enforcement of the laws. It investigates into a wide spectrum of commercial and financial crimes and is an outfit with its own investigative and intelligence resources in the Singapore Police Force.

This indirectly hinted that there are problems in Ren Ci that may possibly lead to some form of criminal offences. Perhaps a better book-keeping process might have kept Ren Ci out of these problems. At worst, they may be reprimanded for certain business decisions they made, but to intentionally hide it is probably a no-no.

A Ministry of Health probe into Ren Ci Hospital and Medicare Centre has discovered that a few financial transactions could not be ’satisfactorily explained’.

‘In order to seek greater clarity into these transactions, MOH has referred them to the Commercial Affairs Department for it assistance,’ said the ministry in a statement on Monday.

‘MOH will be seeking the cooperation of Ren Ci’s board and staff to assistant in CAD’s investigation.’

The ministry will continue its subsidies to Ren Ci for its patient care services to ensure that patients continue to receive care and medical treatment and the day-to-day operations remain undisrupted.

Ren Ci has been under investigation by MOH since last November following the discovery of some possible irregularities in certain financial transactions involving the charity and other external organisations.

Ernst & Young Associates was appointed to conduct the inquiry.

The charity had extended interest-free loans, amounting to millions of dollars, to several companies.

An audit turned up discrepancies between the amount recorded by the charity as loaned out and that recorded by the companies as borrowed.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 18th February 2008

Apparently, gangsters in Hong Kong have gathered to plan an attack on Edison Chen to teach him a lesson over the recent celebrity sex-photo scandal. Unlike Singapore, organized crime has been playing an important role in Hong Kong’s entertainment industry.

However, I was also told that the entertainment industry in Singapore is also quite hei1 an4, meaning "dark". A lot of things were supposed to happen behind the scenes. Well, perhaps the person who told me these stuffs was just trying to dissuade me from joining the industry because I probably can’t make it anyway. Hmm…

HONG KONG media reports said gangsters are supposedly planning to teach Edison Chen a lesson or kill him over the celebrity sex-photo scandal.

Chen, 27, is expected to return from the United States to Hong Kong and face the media on Sunday, said Mavis Leung, his spokesman, who declined to elaborate.

Organised crime has long played an important role in Hong Kong’s entertainment industry. The current scandal has led Hong Kong tabloids to run reports in the last several days of supposed plans by gangsters to ‘teach a lesson’ to Chen and perhaps even kill him.

Chen’s travel plans have been shrouded in secrecy, but Sudden Weekly said he may fly first to Japan, where he would board a Hong Kong-bound private plane owned by Media Asia studio head Peter Lam.

Mr Lam, who is also the owner of Chen’s management company, said it was up to the actor to decide whether to quit showbiz after the scandal.

He described Chen as a ‘kid’ and urged the public to give him a chance to explain what had happened and let him ‘get back on his feet again’.

Sudden Weekly tabloid said the racy photo scandal is said to have started because the actor’s businessman father was in debt.

It said that after Chen took his laptop to be serviced in 2006, risque pictures that he allegedly took of women including Twins singer Gillian Chung and actress Cecilia Cheung had been passed around by insiders in the computer industry.

But the photos did not become publicly available until they fell into the hands of his father’s creditors and were leaked onto the Net, the report said.

For the others involved in the photo scandal, the fall-out continues.

Cheung’s father-in-law, actor Patrick Tse, has denied the latest round of rumours that she has been kicked out of the Tse family.

Chung, who apologised on Monday, will make her first TV appearance since the scandal on a charity show tomorrow. But a Twins concert scheduled for April has been postponed to September.

Meanwhile, the charges against the first man arrested in connection with the scandal was released in court on Friday after the Obscene Articles Tribunal found that the photograph should have been classified as ‘indecent’ - a lesser offence.

Chung Yik Tin, 29, who was accused of uploading a photograph showing someone resembling Chung, half naked and spreading her legs on a bed, was initially charged and refused bail for publishing an obscene photograph.

Police have arrested nine people in connection with photographs and videos on the Internet over the last two weeks.

Three suspects have been formally charged, including a 24-year-old man in Kowloon who was charged on Tuesday with publishing obscene materials. after he was said to have posted 100 photos.

He did not enter a plea and was freed on bail of HK$10,000.

Some Web users in Hong Kong see the police action as an infringement on individual freedoms. They held a protest last Sunday, arguing, among other things, that Hong Kong’s anti-pornography ordinance is too broad and too vague, and that this is a case of unequal treatment.

‘On the Internet there are a lot of nude pictures and sexy photos, but the police don’t bring charges’ except in the current case involving the singers,’ said Oiwan Lam, a local blogger who participated in the demonstration and edits inmediahk.net, a citizen-reporter Web site.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 16th February 2008

This is a particularly interesting topic because the few of us were just talking about it a few days ago. Initially, I questioned about the purpose of the estate duty after which I realised that it’s to ensure that wealth of the deceased do not get inherited and accumulated indefinitely - hence ensuring that there won’t be a distinct divide amongst Singaporeans between the rich and the poor.

Effectively, a great deal of money had been donated to various organizations so that the amount inheritable is less than the ceiling of $9 million, beyond which tax is payable. By doing away with Estate Duty, this means that any amount in excess of $9 million will no longer be taxable. Hmm… while this is encouraging for people to start building their "empires", I’m not sure if this will create a wider divide between the rich and the poor.

SINGAPORE will abolish estate duty, or taxes collected on wealth left behind after an individual’s death, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced on Friday.

‘If we make Singapore an attractive place for wealth to be invested and built up, whether by Singaporeans or foreigners who bring their assets here, it will benefit our whole economy and society,’ he said in his budget speech in Parliament.

It will cost the government $75 million a year, he said.

Singapore inherited estate duty from the British. The rates originally were high - and until 1984, the top rate was 60 per cent.

The current rates are much lower - five per cent for the first $12 million of dutiable assets and 10 per cent thereafter.

On the removal of the estate duty from the tax regime, with immediate effect, Mr Shanmugaratnam said: ‘Estate duty is a means to rebalance opportunities with each new generation and prevent wealth from being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands over time.’

‘It was especially relevant at the time when the bulk of wealth comprised land that was passed down through the family. Today, however, wealth is being created in many more ways and by a wider group of entrepreneurs, many of whom start off with little.’

‘Wealth is also being managed today on a global basis. Proponents of removing estate duty have therefore argued that removing it would encourage wealthy individuals from all over Asia to bring their assets into Singapore, thus supporting the growth of the wealth management industry.’

‘Ordinary Singaporeans have also argued that having worked, paid taxes on their income and property, and built up their savings, they want to be able to pass it on to their families. Some are in fact liable for Estate Duty when their estates receive large life insurance payouts.’

The Minister said the current low exemption limit for non-residential assets, set at $600,000, compared to the higher limit of $9 million for residential properties in fact tends to affect the middle and upper-middle-income estates disproportionately compared to wealthier ones.

‘We have considered raising the $600,000 limit for non-residential assets so as to correct for this. However, this would further shrink what is already a narrow tax base and render the tax less effective,’ he said.

‘I have therefore decided to remove Estate Duty from our tax regime, with effect from today. It is not just a practical or expedient measure, but one that on balance will be in our collective interest.’

‘If we make Singapore an attractive place for wealth to be invested and built up, whether by Singaporeans or foreigners who bring their assets here, it will benefit our whole economy and society, not just the individuals who build up their wealth. It is not a zero sum game.’

He encouraged individuals who have accumulated wealth to think of how they can use it to make a contribution to society, and make full use of the enhanced incentives introduced last year to promote philanthropy.

This will benefit schools, universities and hospitals, and the growing range of charitable causes in Singapore.

With the removal of Estate Duty, he said the remaining tax on wealth would be property tax.

On why this should be retained, the minister said: ‘It is an efficient tax, set at a low rate in relation to the full value of the property, especially for owner-occupied homes. You cannot tax-plan it away. It also does not affect our middle and upper-middle-income estates disproportionately compared to wealthier ones.’

‘This is why most countries have some form of tax on property - including even Hong Kong, which like us does not have capital gains tax and has already done away with Estate Duty. Only Ireland does not have a tax on residential property, but the Irish have capital gains tax, inheritance tax and gift tax.’

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 15th February 2008

It probably doesn’t take a genius to figure out that by the time the Fi tickets are released for public sale after 2 postponements, everyone will be rushing to get it and that the system should be robust enough to handle it.

A visit to the site at www.singaporegp.sg in an attempt to access the ticketing page returned the following error:

An error occured while processing your request!
If you were processing a credit card at the time of this error please contact Customer Support to verify no charges were applied to the card in question before attempting your transaction again.
If you continue to experience this issue please contact Customer Support for further assistance.

Apparently, the ticketing is managed by Omniticket, which seemed to have only European and US offices. It is not known if any development team is located in Singapore, although the main website of Singapore GP is owned locally.

Site flooding is a usual phenomenon for ticketing sites such as Sistic or for cinemas’ such as Golden Village, Cathay or Eng Wah. However, such rush is usually expected only for very popular events at the first few hours that tickets are put up for sale. Another exception is when discount tickets are suddenly put up for grabs, such as the DBS promotion for Phantom of the Opera last year.

While upgrading entire systems for is not reasonable for the occasional peak, better site traffic management such as notifying them of down time in a graceful manner, or preserving session status would definitely be more helpful than presenting a blank or time-out screen after the user clicks on submit.

Let’s just hope that others will learn - which almost never happens.

WHEN tickets for the world’s inaugural Formula One night race went on sale on Thursday morning, fans were expecting a well-oiled ticketing machinery at work.

Instead, what happened when the starting flag came down was complete chaos.

A server error caused the entire ticketing system to foul up. Fans tried for hours to get through the ticketing website and failed.

Even as late as 5pm, fans called up The Straits Times to say they were having problems getting into the F1 website to buy tickets.

Those who tried calling also could not get through.

Some who tried both and failed rushed down in the hope they would have better luck buying over the counter. They were wrong.

Tickets sales on the ground too had run into problems. At the one of SingPost ticket stations, the system was so slow that only three fans were able to purchase tickets in the three hours from opening.

Mark Benterman was whooping with joy when he finally got into the Singapore GP website after one and a half hours of trying.

The British Airways pilot, who lives in Singapore, reserved two Pit Grandstand tickets, each costing $1,388, but his session was timed-out as he was filling in his particulars on the online form.

When Benterman managed to log on to the website again an hour later, he realised, to his horror, that he had lost his seats. After four hours of trying, he gave up trying to buy the tickets online.

‘It was absolutely frustrating and a disgrace,’ he slammed.

‘I like Singapore for its efficiency but this incident is unacceptable. I am trying to spend money but I can’t, due to a computer problem. If Singapore GP cannot sell it online, then they shouldn’t have offered the tickets on the Internet.’

Similarly, Mr Lim Yong Soon had unsuccessfully tried to get the tickets online.

The businessman also tried buying them at the SingPost outlet at Bukit Timah but was told that the website had crashed. After five hours of trying, Lim gave up.

He said: ‘It’s very frustrating to keep trying for hours without results.’

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 14th February 2008

Are you wallowing in self-pity? Are you knocking your head silly on the wall for not planning ahead for a date with a crush? Have you been hopelessly single? Do your crushes treat you like a close sibling of sorts? Do you want to get out of it and bare it all and scream "I AM A (WO)MAN AND I WANT YOU!!!"? Ok, maybe that was a little off, but you know what… ?

Seriously speaking, it doesn’t really matter since Valentine’s Day is already so commercialised. Moreover, if you really love a person, isn’t everyday supposed to be special anyway? Ok, ok. I get it. It’s just a "special day" thing right? So, what can you do if you are prince- or princess-less on Valentine’s Day? Fret not, because there are really a 1001 things you can do without standing out in the crowd as the "unwanted one".

1. Ask a fellow single out for a meal. Dress casual and eat out anywhere and just have some great fun. Really, that can be fun too. Doesn’t matter if it’s 2 guys going out on a dinner date meal together. Everyone else will be too lovey dovey to notice anyway.
2. Ask a few singles out for kopi! Make it a cuppa at Starbucks! Or the kopitiam of your choice … and join the other ah beis looking at the TV box or drinking Tiger
3. Play <insert favourite multi-player game>. After all, this is the best time to up your points and lean over your opponents
4. Join Ridzuan at Starbucks @ Raffles City to light up the place
5. … erm … erm … Form a Singles Support Group?!

Okie… perhaps I am out of ideas, but really, it’s just another day. If you have a loved one, everyday should be like V-day, isn’t it? Not to mention that flowers would cost a fraction

Sometimes, don’t you wonder why Singapore is losing its best and brightest? Have you ever wondered why people would give up their citizenship and withdraw their CPF "just like that"? Don’t you think they have some feelings for Singapore? Well, I have to admit that some people may not, but perhaps not everyone wants to give up their citizenship here… but possible… just possibly… if they get their citizenship elsewhere… then they’d have to give up… something?

And the best solution to this is to bring in more foreigners in the hope that they’d stay here? Hmm… maybe it’s just me, but something doesn’t quite… gel.

SINGAPORE is losing about 1,000 of its best and brightest every year and the numbers are growing, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has said, sounding the alarm on the severity of the brain drain.

And the main magnet for these talents is not regional powerhouse China, but the United States and other developed English-speaking countries, he told the United Press International news agency in an interview earlier this month.

Citing figures of Singaporeans who gave up their citizenship and took out their savings and CPF funds, he said this meant ‘losing about, at the top end, 1,000 a year, which is about - if you take the top 30 per cent of the population - about four or five per cent’.

Mr Lee believes this exodus could only grow because ‘every year, there are more people going abroad for their first or second degree’.

Some of these Singaporean talents head for China, but return eventually because, at the end of the day, they do not want to compete with the Chinese, he said.

‘You go to China, you’re going to compete against 1,300 million very bright fellows, hardworking, starving. Do you stand a chance to be on top of that pole? No.’

‘But if you go there as a Singaporean with a different base, speaking English which they can’t, with connections to the world, then you’ve got a different platform.’

In comparison, the pull of US is difficult to reverse, he said, noting that American firms recruited bright Singaporean students straight out of universities there.

After acclimatising to life and work in the US, ‘if they decide to take the Green Card and settle in America, then I think we?ve lost them’, said Mr Lee.

Singaporeans who do not want the stiff competition in the US go to Australia and Canada, he added.

The brain drain has been a regular issue addressed by MM Lee, who has repeatedly said that this is Singapore’s Achilles heel.

To stem this loss of talent, Singapore has wooed many top professionals from China and India here, he said.

The draw for the Chinese is that their children can learn both English and Chinese, while the Indians like Singapore because it is close to home, yet a step up in terms of First World infrastructure.

‘The trouble is many of the Chinese then use us as a stepping stone to go to America, where the grass is greener.’

‘But even if we only keep 30 to 40 per cent and lose 60 to 70 per cent, we’re a net gainer,’ he said. He said, however, that the Chinese would cease to come in 20 to 30 years’ time, when China’s living standards rise to match Singapore’s.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 13th February 2008

Well, this is probably a bad time to do so because the authorities are really stepping up on checks. From the looks of the reports, it seemed like the police are acting on tip offs because it’s quite unlikely for them to check everyone and to be caught right on, the crew must be really suay. The thing is, it’s the pilots that got caught, and not the cabin crew. I can’t imagine what’d happen to the crew should they ever get caught. Nothing much, I guess, but enough to mar their reputation and to face disciplinary actions.

So, if you don’t want to do your cabin crew friends in, perhaps it’s time to stop asking them to take the risk?

First up, it’s the MAS pilot:

PETALING JAYA - THE Malaysia Airlines (MAS) pilot, who was caught and fined for importing child pornography in Adelaide, has been relieved of flying duties to facilitate an internal enquiry by the national carrier.

In a statement, MAS group human resources senior general manager Effendi Abdul Rahman said:

‘We are first conducting an internal enquiry into this matter. Based on the findings, any further action taken will be in accordance with the MoU between Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysia Airlines Pilots Association (MAPA).’

The pilot, who was identified by Australian news portals ABC News and the Adelaide Advertiser as Ahmad Said, 25, was arrested by Customs officers at the Adelaide International Airport last Thursday, after they found three video files containing child pornography in his laptop.

ABC News said that when the pilot arrived at the airport, he told them he did not have anything to declare.

But when Customs officers searched his laptop, they found the child video files.

The Adelaide Advertiser reported that the videos were titled ‘Reped Virgin’, ‘10-Year Old’ and ‘High School Students.’

His lawyer told the court that Ahmad had been e-mailed the video files and had not shown them to anyone else.

‘He was simply reckless, this was not material brought in to be disseminated,’ lawyer Stephen Barratt had told the Adelaide court. — The Star/ANN.

Next up, the SIA pilot:

A SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) pilot caught with pornographic material at Adelaide International Airport last Saturday, has been charged and fined A$12,000 by Australian authorities.

Captain Ng Kok Yauw, 41, a Malaysian national, was the third person arrested by Australian Customs Service in less than a week as part of a crackdown on attempts to smuggle pornography into the country through Adelaide.

The other two cases involved a 41-year-old Singaporean whose identity is not known and another Malaysian - 23-year-old Ahmad Said who is a co-pilot with Malaysia Airlines (MAS).

Australian media reported over the weekend that the MAS pilot was fined A$6,000, while the 41-year-old Singaporean will appear again in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Feb 25.

A spokesman for Australian Customs told The Straits Times that when Capt Ng was stopped and questioned by officers, he denied carrying any prohibited items.

But when they checked his laptop, they found ‘objectionable material depicting abhorrent sexual acts.’

SIA spokesman Stephen Forshaw said in response to queries: ‘We are aware of the reports of this case and are examining what the Court has said.

‘All our crew are expected to comply fully with the laws of countries to which they operate, and that includes laws relating to the carriage of prohibited items, including data on computers.’

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 12th February 2008

Really, I have nothing against Sony, Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, nor their products, i.e. before they decided to adopt Microsoft’s Windows Mobile as their OS of choice. I have personally given WM many opportunities as my OS of choice but it had time and again failed and fall short of one of my simplest expectations - answering phone calls.

Yes, my WM-based phones have either:

1. Failed to detect an incoming call, or
2. Failed to answer my phone calls despite me pressing the Answer button, or
3. Failed to make phone calls given good signal strengths, or
4. Failed to send our SMS given good signal strengths, or perhaps it just…
5. Failed to report the actual signal strength

Yes, I am irritated by my WM-based, and yes, I am switching back to a Nokia. =) Nokia’s a god-send, until it becomes gey kiang (act smart). At the end of the day, a phone is still a phone… is still a phone. When it has all the bells and whistles but fails to function as what it is meant to do, then it is not a good phone. No amount of software including MP3 player, Flash player, or Microsoft Office Suite built-in will make it a good phone if it fails to perform its most basic function of answering a call.

I hope Sony Ericsson got it good.

BARCELONA (Spain) - SONY Ericsson on Sunday announced a new premium handset aimed at capturing the Web convergence market blending multimedia with mobile web communication in its first product using Microsoft’s operating system.

The Xperia X1 will launch in the second half of 2008 and will be sold worldwide, including in the United States.

It marks the first time Sony Ericsson is using Microsoft Windows Mobile in a departure from its collaboration with Symbian, an open operating system that is partly owned by Sony Ericsson.

Executives said their focus was on the user experience, not the operating system, and said that many Sony Ericsson signature features, including a patented nine-panel interface, had been built on top of the Windows operating system.

Sony Ericsson executive Steve Walker said Microsoft Mobile was the ‘ideal’ platform for the X1.

‘In the case of the X1, Microsoft gives us an opportunity to build on,’ Mr Walker said. But he said that did not necessarily mean that subsequent handsets in the Xperia sub-brand would be based on Microsoft.

The handset features an arc sliding mechanism with a 3-inch-wide (8-centimetre-wide) DVD-quality video display, a full keyboard alongside a touchscreen and optical device for navigation.

Sony Ericsson executives declined to give pricing on the handset, except to say that it would be at a premium mobile phone, or to say how many models it plans to ship.

The partnership was announced on the eve of the Mobile World Congress, the largest wireless industry conference bringing together more than 50,000 industry executives from some 1,300 companies.

‘With Sony Ericsson we are now working with the top five handset makers around the world,’ Microsoft product manager John Starkweather said in an interview before the Barcelona wireless conference.

Samsung, Motorola Inc., and LG all ship cell phones with Microsoft Mobile, while Nokia, the largest handset maker by volume, incorporates some Microsoft technology, including Windows Media Player.

Microsoft expects to ship 20 million new phones using Windows Mobile in the fiscal year that ends June 30, Mr Starkweather said. — AP

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 11th February 2008

Soon after the death of 2 polytechnic students that was attributed to the non-use of safety belts at the back seats, another death of 3 happened just barely 1 week after the last incident. Here, all the passengers were reportedly flung out of the car and parallels were drawn with the previous accident. While I share my condolences with the families involved, I wonder what steps the authorities will take to enforce the safety belt rule.

THE four men had piled into the car for some late-night shopping to transform the rented Hyundai into a bridal car for a wedding in the morning.

But nuptial preparations ended in funeral arrangements for three friends after the car crashed before it reached Mustafa Centre at about 2.20am yesterday.

The sole survivor, Mr Mohammad Alif Mohamed Shah, 19, is in critical condition with head injuries in Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

His family members returned to the hospital last night to keep vigil after burying his elder brother, Mr Mohammad Khalil Mohamed Shah, in the afternoon.

He had died on the spot along with Mr Sunthereswaran Nadesan. Both were 23.

The third fatality was Mr Jaya Kumar Asokan, 27, who died of severe injuries in TTSH within 12 hours of the accident.

He was believed to have been behind the wheel of the silver

1.6 litre Hyundai Avante, which crashed along Dunearn Road towards Newton Circus, outside Chancery Court.

Police spokesman Stanley Norbert said the driver appeared to have lost control of the car, which skidded, hit a kerb and tree, then landed in the bushes next to a canal.

All four knew each other from the Redhill area.

The wedding they were preparing for went ahead as planned at a Hindu temple yesterday at 10am. Missing from the celebrations, however, was the bride’s sister, who was the girlfriend of Mr Khalil.

She was at his funeral, with henna tattoos for the wedding still on her hands.

The 22-year-old student said Mr Khalil, who recently signed on as a Singapore Armed Forces technician, had gone out at night with his younger brother Alif and two other friends to buy decorations for the rented car.

The couple had been together for seven years and had plans to get married in August, she said.

The driver of the car, Mr Jaya Kumar, was also the designated chauffeur for the bridal car, said his brother Suresh Gumar, 21.

Mr Jaya Kumar, a bus driver, had asked his mother to iron the clothes he would have worn to the temple. But he never came home. ‘He was the son every father would want to have,’ said the brother.

One of two who died on the spot, Mr Sunthereswaran, had recently completed national service and was thinking of heading overseas for further studies.

Car rental company Automobil Leasing declined to comment. But the Hyundai is believed to be only a few months old and in good condition.

As all four occupants in yesterday’s crash were flung out of the vehicle, some parallels may be drawn with a similarly horrific crash about two weeks ago. Two polytechnic students - who were not belted up - died after the car they were in veered off Old Upper Thomson Road and smashed into a wall of trees.

The front-seat passenger and driver, who were both strapped in, survived.

Road fatalities continue to be a concern with 219 deaths last year, up from 190 in 2006.

Anyone with information on the latest crash can call the Traffic Police on 1800-547-1818.

joolin@sph.com.sg

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 10th February 2008

This is one of the letters that I really enjoy reading after a long and tiring day - knowing that regardless of the painful decisions that our government has to make, there will be people who will be appreciating them at the end of the day. It’s also heartening to know that eventually, every Singaporean will stand firm behind the decisions made by our government and be supporting every single move that the government makes.

After all, united we stand, divided we fall. Together, we will go through tough times with all our fellow Singaporeans for the betterment of our future generations to come. People like Pavin makes me feel that I have not slogged in vain.

Kudos to Govt for making tough and painful decisions to make driving more enjoyable

I REFER to the letter, ‘Take holistic approach in easing traffic jams’ by Mr Chris Yong (ST, Feb 6).

I believe that Mr Yong has missed the whole point of our Government’s intention to make driving more expensive in Singapore.

Mr Yong wanted the LTA to build flyovers and tunnels for cars and light vehicles to get faster-moving vehicles off the road more quickly but this would not be feasible due to our space constraint.

Our road network takes up 12 per cent of land space, slightly less than that used for housing. It is an extremely large number and, clearly, continued increase and expansion of the road network is definitely unsustainable.

Also, Mr Yong should be more specific as to where the desired increase of flyovers and tunnels should be constructed.

The next problem is about cost. How would the Government fund those multi-billion dollar road construction projects? Obviously, road tax would have to be further increased if we desire an ideal and flawless transportation network.

The vehicle population of nearly 500,000 in Singapore is frightening and I support the Government in its efforts to up the cost of driving as I am willing and able to pay top-dollar for clearer and cleaner roads. Expanding the supply side of the road network is not the solution to the problem as, over time, the car population would further increase because of more space for cars and, eventually, abysmal gridlock would reappear. It is therefore a catch-22 situation if the Government were to expand the road network.

The demand side then must be targeted by further increasing toll prices and percentage tax on the open-market value of cars.

I do not understand why the Government offers a rebate on the Parf when its intentions are to make driving more unaffordable. The only reason why traffic conditions have only improved slightly after the increase of ERP rates and wider ERP coverage (leading to unhappy voices saying it is ineffective) is that the rates are still not high enough; not yet reaching the optimum level. If, for example, the ERP rate to enter Orchard Road via Cairnhill Road is $200, would anyone still dare to use Cairnhill Road?

I, therefore, applaud the Government for being undeterred in making tough and painful decisions for the betterment of all and, also, on the way to making driving an exclusive and more expensive way of commuting in Singapore.

Pavin Limanont

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 9th February 2008