Yaacob caught out wet by another “freak” event again
November 23, 2009 by Our Correspondent
Filed under Opinion
OPINION
If you are going to fork out money to spend one night with your spouse or lover in one of the most luxurious hotels in Singapore like the Raffles Hotel, Marina Mandarin or Pan Pacific, you would naturally expect out of the world service worth every single cent paid.
Unfortunately, the air-conditioner in your room somehow leaked in the middle of the night when you were soundly asleep and you found your $1,000 Armani cloak soaked wet the next day.
This is a “freak” event which happens once in fifty years. The hotel would probably have your cloak replaced for free and on top of that, give you another night’s stay in its presidential suite. Such is the response expected from a world-class hotel.
Similarly, if one has the fortune of staying in a country governed by the highest paid leaders in the entire world, especially on a small island well sheltered from the unpredictable forces of nature, one should expect living a carefree life with few hassles from Mother Nature.
Of course “freak” events do happen at times as Bukit Timah residents discovered to their horror when their houses, cars and whatever became submerged by rainwater last Thursday.
According to the state media, Thursday’s intense rainfall which was about six times that of a normal storm resulted in massive amounts of water to drain into Bukit Timah 1st Diversion Canal, causing it to overflow.
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim described the flooding of parts of Bukit Timah on Thursday as a “freak” event that occurs once in 50 years.
“What happened was very unusual. The intensity was tremendous. We knew the diversion canal was not big enough to take this,” he added. (CNA, 20 Nov 2009)
Did Mr Yacacob know the limitations of the canal only after the flood? If he had known earlier, why wasn’t the canal expanded?
Dr Yaacob did not explain why the canals were not widened earlier to prepare for this “freak” event”. He claimed that it is “not possible” to plan for every event.
“I hope the public will have more patience with us because it will take us some time to enlarge those drains. But having said that, it is not possible for us to plan for every event,” he said.
But surely it is not too much for Singaporeans to expect a multi-millionaire minister to plan ahead and prepare for such “freak” events beforehand?
By Mr Yaacob’s definition, a “freak” event occurs once in fifty years. Twenty five years had passed since the canals were first built which means there is a 50 per cent chance it will happen anytime between now and another quarter of a century later.
Mr Yaacob was appointed the Minister of Environment and Water Resources in 2004. He had 5 years to do something about the canals. It is 5 years, not 5 months, weeks or days! How can such a “freak” event be allowed to happen?
Unfortunately, the Bukit Timah flooding wasn’t the first “freak” event encountered by Mr Yaacob during his tenure.
In case Mr Yaacob forgot, he used the same excuse to exonerate himself and his ministry from any blame back in December 2006 when heavy rain caused excess water from the MacRitchie and Upper Seletar reservoirs to overflow and flood the surrounding areas.
In an interview with Channel News Asia, Mr Yaacob said:
“You can’t design for rainfall of this level, it is just too huge. The thing we can accept is that we can only design our canal of a certain size, and at the end of the day, we have to live with some of these occurrences which occur once in 50 years or so. I know it is inconvenient to some Singaporeans, but on the part of PUB and NEA, we’ll do our best to alleviate the problem as quickly as possible.”
If an unusually heavy downpour is a “freak” event, what about Typhoon Morakot which hits Taiwan a few months ago, the Sichuan earthquake last year and the Asian tsunami in 2004?
Singaporeans are told again and again that their leaders are the best talents in the world who can easily earn more in the private sector and we should be thankful to them for willing to serve “lesser mortals” like us.
It appears that even first world talents do get caught out wet in the cold sometimes by “freak” events like this.
Fortunately, the “Thunder God” got the blame this time instead of Singaporeans as in the last “freak” event which occurred under Mr Yaacob’s watch.
In April this year, two Singaporeans died and hundreds fell ill from a mass food poisoning outbreak after eating from an Indian Rojak stall at the Geylang Serai temporary market.
You would think that deaths from gastroenteritis only occur in third world countries, but to happen in squeaky clean Singapore is really a “freak” event beyond our wildest dream.
The exact cause of the “freak” event was never discovered though the authorities did find a convenient scapegoat in the beleaguered Indian Rojak stallholder who was charged in court.
The Management Committee of the market which was linked to a grassroots organizations was not taken to task. Neither was the National Environment Agency whose officials somehow forgot to send the latest food grading labels to the stallholders.
As usual, Singaporeans were blamed for the “freak” event, this time for not practicing proper hygiene in public, never mind the fact that Indian Rojak is eaten using fork and spoon and not bare hands.
One isolated incident of flooding in 50 years may be considered a “freak” event, but how about two cases in less than two years?
Is Mr Yaacob becoming a minister a “freak” event too?
Singaporeans must be praying hard that no more “freak” events will occur again under Mr Yaacob’s watch for he is unable to do anything about it except to tell you that it is not possible for him to “plan” for every event because it is a “freak” event.
Related articles:
>> Once in 50 year event: Yaacob used the same excuse in 2006
>> Bukit Timah residents unhappy about freak storm
>> Yaacob: Bukit Timah flooding is a freak event
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stan on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 9:29 am
yeah even with the upcoming election. I think the result will be a 50 years freak event too.
Sad on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 9:52 am
Hope it will not be a “freak” voting to get him in the next time. Vote wisely.
fm HK on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 10:36 am
“Singaporeans are told again and again that their leaders are the best talents in the world who can easily earn more in the private sector ”
Do you ever wonder how much Yeo Cheow Tong earned after moving to a private sector? Yeo Cheow Tong now works for Lippo Ltd as an associate director for a reported S$22,000 per month. If you banchmark his pay now in Lippo, is he over paid 100% in the govt sector ??
http://www.yeocheowtong.com/
http://www.escapefromparadise.com/NewFiles/bc.html#Anchor-Th-6908
Sinner on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 12:04 pm
His next comments: “It would be another 50 years for such incidents to occur within a span of 3 years.”
someone sad for singapore on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 12:44 pm
Seriously man, these people don’t seem to really work that hard for the millions that they are getting.
Telling everyone that anything bad happened was a freak accident is not an answer I would accept from someone getting paid a thousand times more of an average worker.
Cpt on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 2:31 pm
I am beginning to understand why our elite team have so many jokers and cartoon.
Freak on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 3:18 pm
Did LKY recently said that he would sned in the army if the opposition wins in a “freak” erection?
Why this word ‘freak” is used so generously in Sillypoor.
cy on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 3:36 pm
why can’t PAP ministers accept that they are also human and can make mistakes, is it so hard to say sorry?
the taiwanese premier apologized for his mistake in typhoon morakot and even stepped down (though i think that was overboard by the taiwanese)
if taiwan was still under chiang’s control, i doubt they will apologize.
similar analogy applies to singapore.
Complain but about serious matters on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 3:43 pm
Why is everyone else whining about the flood in Bukit Timah District 10, a neighbourhood of rich people ?
The rich people there are not complaining about the inconvenience and the car repair bills, so why are the rest of the hoi polloi – that means YOU ! – taking up the cudgel against Yaacob on behalf of the rich folks of Bukit Timah which include SM Goh Chok Tong?
Don’t hold it against Yaacob. Drink a Yakult. Simmer down.
If Ah Goh and the other PAP MPs who live in Bulit Timah are angry, Yaacob will eventually take the fall.
Member of the Freaky Ruling Elites on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 6:56 pm
How did Dr Yacoob get his doctorate? Was his PhD a freak degree. Has he done an intensive study on freak events? Was his doctorate derived from research into freak events?
Is he a specialist in freak activities and events?
Was his appointment as a Millionaire Minister of Environment happened to be a freak selection by freaky people?
Now I understand why MM Lee said if opposition parties were to topple the PAP that would be a freak election, and then he would send in the army …
Now I understand why the PAP are so paranoid, so freaky kiasu.
Now I understand why the PAP must insist on absolute power and absolute control over the whole population, from cradle to grave.
john on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 7:16 pm
“it is not possible for us to plan for every event”
then we pay you million dollar salaries for what? why you act so high and mighty and can talk down to us lesser mortals? i thought you are supposed to be the best team that singapore has to offer?
WRONG. the best team is with opposition.
VOTE FOR CHANGE, VOTE OPPOSITION
http://fashionablefacistdictator.wordpress.com/
anonymous on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 9:58 pm
To the author
If a freak event occurs every 50 years and it did not occur for the past 25 years, there is a 100% chance of occurring in the next quarter of a century as opposed to 50%.
Just nitpicking. Heh
Dear "fm HK on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 10:36 am" on Tue, 24th Nov 2009 10:04 pm
After careful thought… I know that I MUST quote your posting in FULL… even though it means repeating you in total!!!…
Because you showed up the “Super Local ANd International Salesmanship of old Lee”…
Indeed he has been ‘SELLING’ a brand of ’software invisibles!!! EXCEPT in those ATROCIOUS JARGANAUT Salaries of course!!! Softwares are at least visible on a computer screen. BUT then there are what are known as Virus, Spy and also Malicious Softwares that we NON-Computer Literates CAN’T figure out OR even know that they are around!!!…
And your point about Yeo Cheow Tong’s salary AT Lippo IS telling. Simply because, our President gets more than S$3 plus bonus and expenses to for ‘royal’ household and official duties and function too we should think so.
Your SHINING EXAMPLE BRINGS OUT the huge ‘fault-lines’ in the pappy argument for ASTRONOMICAL SALARIES Yah!!! Looking at it from another angle… perhaps too many don’t wnanna join pappy for some popularly known reason or reasons???… And thus pappy had to ‘bend-backwards’ perhaps to accommodate for continuity and “self-renewal”??? JUST a hypothesis in thought really. We are not so smart to figure out these ‘complex’ arguments really!!!… Or are we???… Meaning some of us Singaporeans with more divine grey matter???… I am a remote case here. with no ‘high’ academia degrees like ex-USA Secretary of State DR. Henry Kissinger said to one at the last APEC Conference that he had more from… so and so… ???
ADIOS AMIGOS… as it IS time for a Tiger Beer!!!
purr on Wed, 25th Nov 2009 12:08 am
i stopped reading at ‘$1,000 Armandi cloak’.
yeah loh. you all very the high class publication mans. how do you even expect to be the representative voice of oppressed singaporeans when youre so so out of touch with the world and your spell checker.
EPIC FAIL.
fpc on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 6:09 am
//cy
Coz they are clowns and therefore freak occurrences to us is nothing to them.
They are not simply humans.
They are very thick skinned clowns.
They are a lot less productive than the first generation of PAP leaders and they charged million times more.
If they don’t blame some one or even nature, how else to continue receiving million dollars salary?
fpc on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 6:14 am
//purr
Try reading the Financial times if you want perfect English because Shitty Times had more mistakes than this article.
WP or TR had a article on that.
go search for it.
Purr!