Guess the Blogger Jeff Ooi is starting (as a newly elected public servant) to do serious work in raising awareness in public policies. His 'Urgent train' piece and highlighting Citizen Nades on 'Take care of the basics first' piece is noted. Hope this story gets more traction
See
http://www.jeffooi.com/
http://sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=21458
by Nadeswaran
THE train ride from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore can be long and boring. It takes six, sometimes seven, hours from KL Sentral to Tanjung Pagar. A good book usually comes in handy on such trips. But then, there’s a quicker way – by luxury coach which takes about four hours. It’s now my favourite mode of travel down South. It’s even faster than flying if you include time to travel to and from the airports and the waiting time before boarding. But if Tan Sri Francis Yeoh of YTL Corp had his way, we would be there in a jiffy – 90 minutes in a bullet train which he wants to build.
Well done, but it’s going to cost us – the taxpayers – an arm, a leg and even parts of our torso! It’s going to cost RM8 billion (and that’s what they say) and with cost-overruns and variation orders, add another RM2 billion.
What is the use of having a bullet-train ride to Singapore when we can’t even contain the floods in Kuala Lumpur? My heart bleeds each time the media report of ordinary citizens, children included, appealing for funds to undergo medical treatment. Why spend RM10 billion to reach Singapore in 90 minutes when we can’t even meet basic health needs of our people?
