Liu Tuck Yew Versus Saw Phaik Hwa - who is more important?

[coolguy]

The recent series of SMRT train breakdowns and disruption points more to a technical issue rather management.
LTA is in charge the railway infrastructure, and as such should be held accountable.
SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa, a non-scholar, non SAF general, who came from the private sector and is successful
for managing the business of SMRT Corp, has resigned.
Has she carried the black wok for Liu Tuck Yew?
Is Liu Tuck Yew the sacred cow of the MIW? Once confirmed an elite by the MIW, will be forever an elite?
Indispensable and untouchables?
It does really seems so, judging by the astronomical salaries these ministers are paid.
Not only are they the real elite talents, they are sacred as well.

 

[bhoven]

The recent series of SMRT train breakdowns and disruption points more to a technical issue rather management.
LTA is in charge the railway infrastructure, and as such should be held accountable.
SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa, a non-scholar, non SAF general, who came from the private sector and is successful
for managing the business of SMRT Corp, has resigned.
Has she carried the black wok for Liu Tuck Yew?
Is Liu Tuck Yew the sacred cow of the MIW? Once confirmed an elite by the MIW, will be forever an elite?
Indispensable and untouchables?
It does really seems so, judging by the astronomical salaries these ministers are paid.
Not only are they the real elite talents, they are sacred as well.

To be balanced, he took over this job only in May last year...the root problems date far earlier...what, if anything,he achieved at MITA is another issue altogether

 

[jw5]

Neither.
The most important is Ho Ching.

 

[Fook Seng]

The recent series of SMRT train breakdowns and disruption points more to a technical issue rather management.

Dislodged claws is definitely a maintenance issue. These things have been around for 20 to 30 years and only become a problem recently. In fact if these were progressively replaced in a preventive maintenance schedule, a major fault like this could be avoided. Signalling faults are more complicated. They could be due to hardware problems e.g. Sensors, controllers or servers, in which case lack of preventIve maintenance is the culprit leading to failures and delays requiring corrective maintenance. They could be due to software issues or timing problems. For a new system, such as the Circle Line, it would be a software defect which requires software patches or software upgrade, or simply a timing and configuration issue. In this case, LTA is at fault for not giving enough time in its planning process for the system to be fully tested before putting into service or it could be basing design on wrong parameters such as population growth supplied to them from another govt department from another ministry. The worst situation would be the wrong product was chosen. For an existing line, the need to do software upgrades or software reconfiguration to meet the new traffic requirement could be the problem, or rather the failure to take appropriate action. Do not know how this role is carved, SMRT or LTA. Logically even if LTA's role is to provide this investment ( may not be true), studies and feedbacks and identifying the needs must come from the ground as they have the manpower and access to the full operation data to do so. I think LTA's greatest failing is not this but in putting up strict standards of service compliance and strong enough penalties to maintain good public service that is not overwritten by shareholders' benefits.

 

[Varuna]

Neither.
The most important is Ho Ching.

The problem was the spark. The people were the wind. And the fire raged as far as it could until it hit the firewall. Anything outside the firewall is dispensable as long as the fire can be extinguished fast. So the crux is to find out where is that firewall and and who is inside it.

 

[freedalas]

Dislodged claws is definitely a maintenance issue. These things have been around for 20 to 30 years and only become a problem recently. In fact if these were progressively replaced in a preventive maintenance schedule, a major fault like this could be avoided. Signalling faults are more complicated. They could be due to hardware problems e.g. Sensors, controllers or servers, in which case lack of preventIve maintenance is the culprit leading to failures and delays requiring corrective maintenance. They could be due to software issues or timing problems. For a new system, such as the Circle Line, it would be a software defect which requires software patches or software upgrade, or simply a timing and configuration issue. In this case, LTA is at fault for not giving enough time in its planning process for the system to be fully tested before putting into service or it could be basing design on wrong parameters such as population growth supplied to them from another govt department from another ministry. The worst situation would be the wrong product was chosen. For an existing line, the need to do software upgrades or software reconfiguration to meet the new traffic requirement could be the problem, or rather the failure to take appropriate action. Do not know how this role is carved, SMRT or LTA. Logically even if LTA's role is to provide this investment ( may not be true), studies and feedbacks and identifying the needs must come from the ground as they have the manpower and access to the full operation data to do so. I think LTA's greatest failing is not this but in putting up strict standards of service compliance and strong enough penalties to maintain good public service that is not overwritten by shareholders' benefits.

Good analysis, bro. Just a small point to add. LTA pretty much left SMRT alone for one simple reason. SMRT is effectively owned by Temasek or more accurately by Ho Ching. That being the case, LTA will never dare touch SMRT just as any govt ministry or statutory board would never touch any Temasek company under their purview. So in the final analysis, the source of all SMRT problems is Ho Ching. To Ho Ching, all that matters are the revenue from SMRT's retail outlets. How the rail operations are being run is the furthest from her mind. This led to Saw PH neglecting the rail operations and the related maintenance since Ho Ching never bother about them at all.

 

[chowka]

The problem was the spark.

The problem is both are ugly.

 

[steffychun]

When one is dumb enough to give examples like Mushrooms during elections, one can stay in the job.

 

[Fook Seng]

Good analysis, bro. Just a small point to add. LTA pretty much left SMRT alone for one simple reason. SMRT is effectively owned by Temasek or more accurately by Ho Ching. That being the case, LTA will never dare touch SMRT just as any govt ministry or statutory board would never touch any Temasek company under their purview. So in the final analysis, the source of all SMRT problems is Ho Ching. To Ho Ching, all that matters are the revenue from SMRT's retail outlets. How the rail operations are being run is the furthest from her mind. This led to Saw PH neglecting the rail operations and the related maintenance since Ho Ching never bother about them at all.

Surprisingly HC is a trained engineer.

 

[eatshitndie]

the root problem may be more than just dislodged claws. it may have to do with isolating vibrational energy within track instead of dissipating vibrations from track to tunnel in order to protect precious real estate in the urban core. wrote about this on another thread. you have to find it. not gonna repeat here.

 

[freedalas]

the root problem may be more than just dislodged claws. it may have to do with isolating vibrational energy within track instead of dissipating vibrations from track to tunnel in order to protect precious real estate in the urban core. wrote about this on another thread. you have to find it. not gonna repeat here.

Could well be. But that's such the technical details and is not the root cause. The root cause is simply that SMRT did not pay enough attention to the maintenance of the rail operations. If they had, such technical faults as you described would have been pre-empted. Fellow forummers had already very comprehensively laid down the reasons why things can go so wrong, which basically can be summarised as 1) Temasek's directive to SMRT to focus on the retail business to generate more revenue, 2) a grossly underprovision of budget for rail maintenance- a mere 8% whereas 18% to 20% is the norm elsewhere and 3)LTA and Ministry of Transport not providing adequate oversight to SMRT operations because the owner is Temasek aka Ho Ching adn they therefore won't dare to interfere. Added to all these is a superbly arrogant butch as the CEO who dismissed public's feedback with the drop of a hat as she is Ho Ching's pet.

The technical faults would be resolved technically. You can be sure of that, so no point going into that too deeply to deflect attention to the root cause. The people are not concern with what went wrong technically. Instead they want to know what has led to the dismal state of affairs in SMRT tand how they would be addressed and rectified.

 

[julyaric720]

I join issue with you there. My view is entirely opposed to yours.