Would the Minister be saying the same thing if a child got swept away and drowned in the flood on Thursday?… I would have expected at least an ounce of contrition on the part of the Minister for his ministry’s failure to act on a problem that has been known for years.
Gerald Giam, on Yaacob Ibrahim’s remarks on flood at Bukit Timah
Related posts:
- I knew because he told me
- Flood was a “freak” event, says Minister
- Singapore government knew that Mas Selamat had been arrested
- Are you a lawyer? Only if the minister says so
- Ho Ching’s Temasek appointment is not decided by the Prime Minister, says High Commissioner
singapore is so small to manage compared to china.
or would people dare to say china is more easy to manage compared to singapore?
if places are known to be flooding, then fix it.
you don’t need to do the actually construction work.
just call for tender let someone earn money fix the problem.
singapre has a lot of money right?
so funny that in singapore, cars can get immersed half way in rain water and its so sad mosquitoes flying around is so common and so many dead due to mosquitoes. I wonder in the kampong days did more died of dengue than now?
The Minister will be in a lot of trouble. How are his colleagues going to find their way home in future if it keeps flooding. What abt their children who have to go to those premier schools in Bt Timah, their shoes might wet and Jet Li can’t leap that far to his house. Rich FTs will bolt out of this country and our womenfolk will have to be maids in other 3rd world countries. Curse the weather, if it continues to rain like that, we have to go back to 3rd world.
To expect a sitting PAP minister to admit they were wrong about something is akin to expecting gold to fall from the sky. It will never happen no matter how many people’s lives are lost or affected. They really believe that they are infallible.
#3,
That is not the main problem.
The main problem is the Talents of singapore shy away from forming new opposition parties and there is lack of opposition in parliament to voice up about this issue. ‘Freak’ is not a satisfactory answer.
Taiwan freak accidents on a big scale who is at fault? no one ?
i want to be the next ministar or even MP i also can accept nomination. Salary of around $14K a month is reasonable as a part-time job. I am very accountable, responsible and can handle all FREAK situations. I bagus wan.
If get to become MP for 2 times, get anything special?
I don’t want to stereotype the response to the minister giving it. Remember the Geylang rat poison incident ? He claimed it wasn’t in his scope too. Rat poison, out of scope; flood, freak incident……. I bring a minister and next level reports in to think of the people interests and solve problems, not to tell me what a freak incident is without the foresight of pulling out a contingency plan at first instance, and what is out of scope.
#6,
ya , almost forgotten about it being a singaporean with ginko deficit syndrome.
Thanks for the reminder.
I think Our leaders never can go wrong. so perfect. Whiter than white.
This bears a semblance of Wong Kan Seng reply when Mas Selamat gone missing. That was a freak accident, this is a freak weather condition…. the only freaking thing I realise about this is they are freaking ministers who earned lots of money but not having any accountability whatsoever.
I am so sorry to witness so many cars stranded in the flood…imagine the amount of money to repair these cars. I wish to those affected by that flood best of luck settling your debts with the car repair shops.
We should move more ministers house to this area being district 10 and all the crap…then the canals would have been enlarged.
And what the freak is the marina barage for??? I thought it was suppose to address exactly this problem.Oh no… this goes to another reservoir not the marina ones… excuses , excuses and more excuses and no heads to be hanged! Outrageous!
The response from our elites is typical. It shows again basically they are very good at giving excuses instead of taking responsibility for problems that occur.
We are not talking about events that happen once in a blue moon like a tsunami which no one can predict where it will happen next. It is a well known fact that Bukit Timah is a flood prone area and they have had 30 years to look at the problem. Is widening the canals the only way to solve the problem? Do our elites really think they are gods who can outdo Mother Nature?
I’m sure if they had looked at other ways to mitigate the problem instead, they would not have been caught by surprise. The losses incurred by the public could have been minimised if they had fixed an early warning system to warn the public of the impending rise in flood waters.
Would have been better if the minister kept the “once every 50 year freak event” bit, and left out the “We knew it” part. This one I think, cannot become PM lah. Donno how to handle press – fail. We need someone who can link this event positively to the PAP, thus:
This is an event that happens once every 50 years. In the past 50 years, the government has done much for the infrastructure of Singapore. We have spent $XXXX on our drainage and canal system, and people from A, B and C countries send delegates to Singapore every year to learn from us.
This event is unfortunate, but we can be thankful that due to the government’s past efforts in building deeper culverts, the extent of the damage was contained to Bt Timah. It could have been much much worse! The whole of Singapore could have been submerged and no one would want to come and invest in Singapore anymore. As it is, we only saw some roads being temporarily impassable, and the wetting of a few cars. Again, because of our foresight in road-building, traffic was easily diverted to other roads nearby. Some drivers even left their cars and hopped onto our world-class public transportation.
We will continue to ensure that such an event does not happen in the future.
Like that, people will not be so angry….
The MILLION DOLLARS paid MINISTAR can only watch in despair as the MILLION DOLLARS Ferrari get a thorough soak in the basement of Tessarina condo.
So its a “FREAK” incident, just like the mas selamat case. So let’s “MOVE ON”.
FREAK MOVE ON should be the election banter for the upcoming election.
Usual response from our mas : mana ada sistem ( where got system ) bureaucracies adapt at tai chi away blames or responsibilities – like the Geylang Serai rozak poisonings when it was infact their utter failures to supervise , monitor and assess performances of their subcontractors at various levels and now this same enviro bloke blahs blahs the same rhetoric and assuming we are not aware all these canal drainage chokings did not surface over night hor ……..
When the top man at the apex does not feel the pulse and rhythm and the sense of his organisation at all levels and yet can be so aloof and without contrition easily tai chi away ineptness – then it must be maddening mad lor………..
Well ! ! will we get to see the next episode – all should know what to expect by now liao…….
What do all of you expect him to do? He is always sititng in the air-con office not knowing what had gone wrong or not prepare when crises arise. This is the millon dollar pay minister or talent people’s work! I will like to apply for this kind of easy job.
Hello people, please give that man a break!
If i remember correctly, one of our esteem SM resides in that area. The Minister could probably have a full load from his superior liao.
We all know that the area are the rich men enclaves, so why bother to spend more money on the rich, the gahmen, would have done that long ago!
We should just leave it that way, an honest mistake!
In any engineering design, drainage systems included, cost effectiveness is a factor that always need to be considered.
Do we design a draiange system to cater for a rain that could possibly occur, say, once in 200 years?
In SG, the historical flood data available would not go back that many years even if we wanted to design for that.
Likewise, do we go build a road so wide with so many lanes to cater for traffic volume in say 2090? Road may be an obselete thing by then.
Do we built a building that can last a thousand years? No. The layout of a typical building become uneconomical to be re-adpted for re-use in leass than 30 years.
It like no one will desiggn a car that last 100 years, or maybe even a handpne for 20 years.
City design should always include Drainage and Flood contingency plan.
I am totally shocked to learn that singapore got flooding.
Total Disappointment!
But what to do?
People with the capability to Voice Up for the people should be speaking to a larger audience like in parliament.
As we all agree, number of citizens reading political blogs is small compared to the population size which is nevertheless not very big also.
So, what i mean is by ‘virtue’ of Apathy, most citizens are oblivious what are said on the net. Of course daily there could be people patrolling the blogs. But these are doing their job.
A flood happens and everyone is jostling about like it was a natural disaster. If you have lived abroad, this flood is nothing much really.
And freak weather does happen, whether we like it or not.
Most times, I see the canal being really more than up to the task at hand, with most rainy seasons not even filling up more than 60% of the waterline of the canal, and believe me I travel past it everyday and see it for myself..
I think the NEA needs to learn from this freak accident and come up with a compensation package for affected homeowners and businesses involved, but to take out the siren and call it a national disaster is going too far.
It’s a flood. Nothing much. What can be done is to alleviate the chances of this occuring again. Bukit Timah is a low-lying area, floods will always have a chance of occuring even with increased drainage capacity or more culverts/canals.. it’s a general terrain issue..
//KopitiamApek
how do you know that a building in Singapore won’t last 100 years?
How do you know a handphone would last 20 years?
Malaysia Mahathir had a solution for flooding long time ago using underpass or underground roads as emergency channeling out the flood water.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/floods/news/article.cfm?c_id=205&objectid=10603407
Even the UK recently need to learn from Mahathir.
What an inventor.
Also, malaysia had long ago sent their climbers to Mt Everest :
http://sejarahmalaysia.pnm.my/portalBI/detail.php?section=sm06&spesifik_id=50&ttl_id=56
I wonder how many singaporeans know this ?
Malaysia is indeed truely very advanced in their own ways.
By the way, in case you suspect, i am not a malaysian.
Malaysia boleh, nevertheless.
It was reported that “PUB has invested $59 million over the last 12 months to widen and deepen drainage networks, as well as raise the roads in 10 low-lying areas.”
A quick check at the MOF website indicated that $180M and $190M was earmarked for drainage works in FY2008 and FY2009 respectively.
http://www.mof.gov.sg/budget_2008/ex…view/mewr.html $180million in FY2008
http://www.mof.gov.sg/budget_2009/ex…view/mewr.html $190million in FY2009
Why is PUB underspending relative to the scope of the problem? It is disappointing to hear the minister regurgitate the same lame excuse in recent years. Flooding occurs due to inadequate drainage. Period. It is solved by proper capacity planning and engineering. It is not difficult to get right, really!
They are not spending the money that should be spend, but wasting money that shouldn’t be wasted
The two URLs above should have been
http://www.mof.gov.sg/budget_2008/expenditure_overview/mewr.html
http://www.mof.gov.sg/budget_2009/expenditure_overview/mewr.html
The highet paid Minister in the World but gives an answer which sounds like it came from a seven year old child……He should be sacked immediately and replaced by a Bangla FT. at $600 per month…..just imagine the savings to the Taxpayers.
Time to reomove all these merceneries and greedy good for nothing politicians in the next GE
Fixated thinkers are what the Singapore education system has created and is still creating.
Problem: Heavy rain cause serious flooding in Bt Timah.
Solution: Construct large canals.
In the US, a child at the age of six is asked to find out how many ways to cook an egg. He went home to ask his parents to help. Finally, he arrived at nine different ways to cook an egg. What does this tell us?
Even a child knows where to seek help. He got the answer because he is not shy to ask for help.
This problem of the unfreak ‘freak’ flood can be solved through a confluence of measures. The answer cannot be just one way – i.e. drainage = canals.
If the Freaky Minister is not shy to ask different professionals to help him solve the problem, he would have arrived at various ways of solving his freak flood problem, because different professionals will look at the same problem in different ways.
For example:
1. The Botanist may say, “Cut down some trees at Bt Timah area because there are too many trees there, and as a result heavier rainfalls are attracted to that area.”
2. The Engineer may say, “Construct more canals to divert the rain water.”
3. The Weatherman may say, “Provide an Early Warning System so that residents in that area can be alerted in time to take precautionary actions to limit the damages.”
4. The Mechanic may say, “Why not use high powered pumps to pump the rain water out to sea …”
5. The Town Planner may say, “In future, all buildings in flood prone areas should be built on stilts or on raised high-grounds.”
There you are, just five examples. Of course, there are some more ways to be added. And all the solutions can be amalgamated and implemented for full effect.
I just wonder what the Ministry of Environment has been doing for the last 30 years?
Failed to inspect and monitor food stalls. Failed to detect rat problems. Failed to eradicate the Malaria disease. Failed to contain the Dengue Mosquitoes. Failed to formulate for contingency plans for the flood-prone areas.
BUT succeeded in giving the Permanent Secretary a continuous stretch of five weeks leave to attend a French Cooking Course at Cordon Bleu so that he could publicly belittle all the other Perm Secs for being unable to take such a long period of leave.
“Taking five weeks’ leave from work is not as difficult as one thinks. Most times, when you are at the top, you think you are indispensable. But if you are a good leader who has built up a good team, it is possible to go away for five weeks or even longer.” – Tan Yong Soon.
why don’t they just channel bukit timah longkangs into orchard road via erp tunnels…or direct into the instana private reservoir…
bukit timah flooded? not MINE problemo..i don’t lived there either
jetli can fly but he simplee cannot swim..thats lenordo de caprichi or litao specialist…
[i]KopitiamApek on November 22nd, 2009 9.15 pm In any engineering design, drainage systems included, cost effectiveness is a factor that always need to be considered.
Do we design a draiange system to cater for a rain that could possibly occur, say, once in 200 years?[/i]
wherewere you in the early 70s?
everytime when it RAINED..bukit timah is alway FLOODED..
now you know why leekuanyew never lived in bukit timah @ all
and yes leekuanyew can cetainlee leaped..from his grave as well
but he also cannot swim liked ang seng watt or peow or how…
Hi KopitiamApek,
In any engineering design, whatever it may be, the first and foremost consideration must always be Safety. Without it, no design, no matter how good and cost-effective it is, should even pass the first level of approval.
For any of you familiar with the Toyota Production System, or Lean management System, or even the 5 ‘S’ system – you will see that Safety must always be considered first. Safety here refers to the protection of life from harm or death.
So, to be caught out by a freak event is acceptable when all areas of safety have been considered. It does not make sense for the minister to acknowledge that such an incident could happen, that he knew could happen – and then blame it on the freaky weather.
He has also shown himself to be a liar with such a comment – that such weather comes about once in fifty years. Has he already forgotten the freak flooding at Thomson Road / Macritchie Reservoir? It was only a year ago when the flower businesses located there were wiped out around this time of the year too.
So no, KopitiamApek. You are arguing the way you did because you have been sold to his reasoning that this is a freak incident that happens only once in fifty years. No, my friend, this is no freak, not when he knew that it was something waiting to happen.
I wonder, if that statement were to be taken out of context, in hokkien and spoken by a man
wah, long kang bo gau twa, simi bo cho.
hahaha
Complacency is the only word for all the Singapore Ministers! Thar is my
opinion. This Minister might as well say people dies on average @ age
70 so let them die! It’s 70 years once so it’s ok!
We need a two party system of government. It has to start NOW!
Don’t be poison by the local media…subscribe to The Online Citizen!
Tell your neighbors and friends!
As usual.. forever making LAME statements & comments…
I wonder how many people in Singapore really bother about the flooding in Bukit Timah, apart from those affected. For all we know, many may agree with the Honourable Minister that it was a freak accident, let’s shrug it off as another quirk of Nature, and move on.
But this apparent outpouring of public angst is a reflection, I think, of a greater and deeper dissatisfaction with the authorities. Has this government have lost the divine mandate to rule?
20 days worth of rain fell in a space of 3 hours. Sure we can design a canal system or pour in more resources to handle such outlier events. How much should we spend? Do we prevent all flooding in Singapore? What if we really need larger canals, will the roads be affected? Then what about road congestion? What about real estate and people’s houses?
“Failed to inspect and monitor food stalls. Failed to detect rat problems. Failed to eradicate the Malaria disease. Failed to contain the Dengue Mosquitoes. Failed to formulate for contingency plans for the flood-prone areas.”
It’s easy to hate a PAP minister – but remember that ordinary Singaporeans work in the Ministry of Environment. Are you sure they did not contain the above problems? Are you sure that people in the government are not doing their jobs?
The water has receded and no one got hurt. No water-borne diseases from 3-4-5 day flooding. On the whole, it is not a big deal, and most singaporeans would think the same.
I feel that the public angst tends to be ungrounded in rational fact and reason. I am very disappointed. There are many things that need to be changed in terms of how things are being run – but verbal attacks and polemics unfettered by reason and drenched in fallacies don’t help.
We’re too spoilt.
Oh, my dear “Come Play Sency”, if you happen to know the mindsets of some “stupid” Chinese scholars who study in Singapore under Singapore government’s scholarships, you will be shocked for the rest of your life till the day you die! (By the way, I opine that they are the mouthpieces of their own respective masters in the China as well as idiotic strong believers of the pap government who awarded them the scholarships—imbeciles, morons and nerds who only know how to memorize and study very, very,…… hard.)
As you mentioned, since Singapore is so small to manage as compared to the China, yet, so many major and immediate problems left without resolved by those “million-dollar miw ministers”, the above mentioned bunch of stupid Chinese scholars still proclaim, unequivocally, that Singapore is the **model** for the Chinese people to emulate. Has the Chinese stupidity elevated to such an absurd level that “mimicking” a pig that make-up with a lip-stick to fly!!!!!! What a shameful bunch of idiots, peasants, country-bumpkins, imbeciles, morons and nerds from China? I, sincerely, hope that most of the Chinese people in China do not have similar mindsets and thinking like those Chinese scholars, mentioned above! Keep my fingers crossed!
Always remember input=output, huge pay=heavier responsibility=higher expectation=greater demand, do you understand! My dear undergradbyday! I am also very disappointed!
And This Malay Minister Yacob Ibrahim is ONE OF THE 30 HIGHEST PAID POLITICIAN IN THE WORLD…We expect him to perform as ONE OF THE 30 TOP POLITICIANS IN THE WORLD….AND hE HAS FAILED MISERABLY…………. He shoul dbe replaced with immediate effect by a $600 per month Bangla. Foreign Talent.
Come on, people. The Government’s approach towards managing the risk of flooding cost-effectively is excellent. In this approach, the frequency and severity has to be taken in account in managing the risk.
As a Tax paying citizen I do not feel that my tax dollars is cost effective in paying the 30 highest paid politicians in the World. and this Yacob guy is one of the 30……If anything else I am angry with his cavelier answer and excuse…..Five years of our Politcians Pay will have been sufficient to solve a major part of the flooding….
We are certainly overpaying our Politicians and our Top Civil Servants..especially guys like Mr. Tan Yong Soon who bragged how efficient he is and this is happening to a Dept. closely associated with him…There must be many many more Tan Yong Soons.hiding in the bureaucratic woodwork.
We are not talking about once in 50 years flooding alone…there are many other issues….like lamp post falling on to a boy and nobody took responsibility for it….like inefficiencies in the public hospitals, like cramming citizens in trains and buses, like the cost of living overtaking the the purchasing ability of the lower income group….like losing billions of tax payers’ money in Temesek and GIC; like playing with words on OPublic Housing Susidy (Market Subsidy” which is NOT a subsidy.; like the patrol boat bristling with electronics worth 60million $ colliding with a merchant ship in clear weather no politician or Top Army Officer took responsibility (and the Chief of navy is now a Minister.). the list is incomplete..it goes on …..all these screwups add up to the frustration and anger at ground level.
Many are waiting for a chance to vote out the incumbents…Do away with the GRCS…and see how these coat tail politicians fare in a GE.
undergradbyday,
I don’t know what you do by night. But I don’t want to know.
It’s easy for you to talk when you are not one of the victims of the recent flooding.
We don’t hate any minister. We are here to highlight their shortfalls and faults and
hopefully to wake them up and take concrete preventive measures before any fatal accidents happened! $$ cannot be used to measure the eventualities! If the
freak flooding has to be fixed although as the minister said it happened only once in 50 years, it has to be fixed!
Btw, who ask them to pay themselves $million salary? Well you want that type of salary, you got it! But please deliver in accordance as what you are paid!
Any secondary school boy can say ‘oh it happened once in 50 years’ and leave nature to take its course again?
They must perform to justify their pay! We ask for nothing more, nothing less!!
29) gemami
No, my friend, I like to think that I am capable of independent reasoning and was not “sold to his reasoning”.
Drainage design are based on historical rainfall data. We can be so kiasu and built huge ugly canals all over the island to cater for any eventuality that may only happen once in a thousand years. Or we can be pragmatic and strike a happy balance.
The Thomson/MacRitchie nursery flood area was a low lying area. The nurseries were on temporary land use. The long term solution is to raise the ground above known flood level. This can be done when the land is reverted to long term use. By the way, the canal has been rebuilt since. If you pass by the area, you will notice now the canal is higher than the nurseries. When it rains, they will still need to pump out the rain water.