It’s been a long, drawn-out controversy, this cover-up that the Land Transport Authority allegedly carried out about the defective trains sent back to China.
The Singaporean public reacted in half-hearted horrification last week when Hong Kong-based news agency FactWire broke the news that 35 MRT trains were secretly being shipped back to manufacturers — Japanese company Kawasaki Heavy Industries and CSR Sifang — in Qingdao, China, for repairs. Apparently, the inherent defects of the trains were due to shoddy workmanship, with cracks found in structural components and other elements that have led to serious malfunctions. Thus the numerous amounts of train service disruptions over the years.
After a period of silence, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan explained that the revelation of the trains being returned to China for repairs could have caused undue panic to the layman.
Disregarding the controversy, he assured everyone that there was no safety issue in the first place, and the LTA would have let the public know if there was one. LTA added that there was no correlation between the train delays of over five minutes to the hairline cracks.
Khaw dug deep, too. He pooh-poohed FactWire’s scoop, linking the news agency to factions in Hong Kong with an anti-China political agenda.
“We are caught in a crossfire and there are factions in Hong Kong who wanted to cause some difficulties for mainland China,” he said. “Unfortunately, we become a convenient bullet and collateral damage. Whatever it is, it is of legitimate concern to Singaporeans and we have to address them”.
Clearly riled up by the accusations, FactWire just issued an open letter to Singapore’s transport minister, hitting back at his accusatory comments against them.
They expressed regrets over the “false statements” Khaw made, disappointed that he chose to blame the news agency rather than take responsibility “for an incident which has damaged the Singaporean public’s trust in the authorities”.
FactWire went on to establish that they are entirely funded by the public, and serve no commercial or political interests.
“As a news agency committed to serving the public, when public officials are riled by our reporting, it is merely proof that we are doing the right thing,” they wrote, before dropping the proverbial mic.
