TR EMERITUS

Grab fares are now more and more expensive. I realise that Grab has recently increased its fares, and sneakily only informed their Drivers without telling consumers! I noticed this when booking a grabshare from my office back home, and I realised the fares are more expensive! Even without surge, the price has gone up, and yet upon checking the news, there is no mention of this anywhere! I had to check with my driver friends who told me they received an email that fares will be increased. Is this fair to our consumers? Is the government sleeping on their jobs? How can they allow a monopoly player like Grab to increase their fares on the consumer, especially after their merger with Uber? I suspect soon, more and more fare increases, surges will follow if the government does not step in to protect our consumers. Also, where is the transparency? In the past, if taxi companies wanted to raise fares, the government will step in and negotiate, as they will know the plight of consumers, some of which are old auntie uncles who may not be able to afford expensive fares to the polyclinic but need taxi services. Also fares increases will be announced on the news and be discussed extensively by us. Now that Grab has increased fares, why is the public kept in the dark? Lastly, my final complaint is that there are more and more problems with Grab nowadays. Whenever I tried to take Grab, as Long as there is no surge, the Drivers will always accept and cancel. What’s the point of accepting my trip if they do not want to take consumers, are they lying to us? Why do they do this? If they are not willing to drive us, just don’t accept the trip, so others can take it. Honestly, grab really needs to improve its drivers’ education and training, so that consumers will not have to to be cancelled. In the past at least they tried to curb this problem by offering consumers some Grab credits if Drivers cancel, but it seems they have give up on improving their Drivers entirely! They have cancelled this scheme, but the cancellations continue! Finally, I like to appeal to the government to step in and regulate Grab, and possibly reverse their profit-seeking fare hike. Grab is a multi-billion dollar company and if they want to improve earnings for Drivers, they should take less commission from them, not out consumers on the chopping board! Don’t tell me a billion dollar company can’t afford to pay their Drivers properly, when they have access to so much data, and have multiple businesses from food delivery to payment methods. Please spare some concern for the elderly ah gong ah Ma who may not be able to afford expensive fare hikes, and cannot wait for Long to go to hospital appointments, but are left feeling helpless when their driver cancels their grabshare after accepting.   A disgruntled and frustrated consumer.          Read More →

We met ex-Navy man, Mr Phua who revealed that we are the first political party to have ever visited him. He then shared that he had pleaded to the incumbent MP to have lifts installed at his side of the block. “I have fed back to him but for the past 8 years, nothing was done. I am getting old & I never know if I will end up in a wheelchair one day. How am I supposed to get to the foot of the flat without any lift facility when that day comes? I even told him that we are ready to pay for the cost of it but nothing was done. If you can’t do it, at least keep me posted but don’t patronize me & treat me like a fool. I am glad to know that the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) intends to contest this area. I will like to know more about your party’s national policies & how you can bring improvement to my life in this precinct.” Mr Phua isn’t the only resident who is facing this municipal issue. Apparently, his neighbour who is an air stewardess, struggles with her luggage every time. Resigned to fate, she simply lets her bulky suitcases tumble down the stairs each time she heads out for work. A couple also shared that they had fed back to the incumbent on the same lift issue, blindly voted for him & his team for 2 elections but nothing has been done. My reply to these residents is simple,”besides the incumbent MP, you also have the Minister of National Development representing you in this GRC. Ironically, even he has failed to resolve your issue despite the fact that his ministry takes care of such municipal development projects. Trust is not what you say, it’s what you do. Do you still want to trust the PAP again in the next elections? Put us in Parliament & let us work with you to get the job done.”   *Facebook post by Bryan Lim Boon Heng.      Read More →

The Singapore Men’s Softball team’s won a historic gold medal in the SEA games today, upsetting the host Philippines. For them to beat the Philippines’ men’s national team on the latter's home soil is no mean feat. The Philippines have been the powerhouse in this sport in Asia for decades. This is a very relevant lesson for our Nation on how we must rely on our own native talent and not be overly dependent on so called 'foreign talent'. [This was a team made up of 100% native Singaporean young men!] This young team’s success (the average age is only 22.8 years old  was no fluke. The genesis of the team’s success can be traced back some 10 years, when principally 3 secondary schools, namely Catholic High, Anglo-Chinese and Raffles started a very serious softball program. In the case of Catholic High, they even started special sports classes, where promising athletes were identified and parents were encouraged to enroll their children in it. The schedule was gruelling, with the schoolchildren being dropped off as early as 6 am to train before classes started. After class every day, there would be training as well. The schoolchildren would often reach home at around 7-8pm, and then they would have to do homework as well. It required a lot of discipline, but the schoolchildren not only excelled at their chosen sport but in their studies too! These young sportsmen often landed up in either Anglo-Chinese Junior College, Raffles Junior College or Hwa Chong Junior College, which were the top 3 teams in their age-group. Former rivals became teammates and a real camaraderie was established. From these teams, the core of the Men’s youth team was formed before they stepped up to the National Men’s team. What it shows is that Singapore does not lack talent - I eschew all the nonsensical talk of our country being talent deficit. What we need is a government that is serious about training our citizens to do the high-end and well-paying jobs and not import foreigners to take those jobs away from Singaporeans! And by serious training, I don’t mean the absurd SkillsFuture program, the 2 most popular courses of which are K-Pop and how to qualify as a PHV driver! We want Singaporeans to be doing the high-end and well-paying jobs. Every government must realise a simple truth- when the need arises, no foreigner is going to bear arms to defend our Nation. Only native Singaporeans are going to lay their lives on the line to defend our people! A decent government owes our citizens the duty of looking after their interests ahead of the interests of any foreigner! Lim Tean        Read More →