Hotline = LRT?

New JB police hotline for Singaporeans - TODAYonline, 7th Sept 2006

1. AS PART of its crime-fighting efforts, Johor police have established a hotline, manned round the clock, that Singaporeans can call to report an incident or to seek help. They can call 07-2212999 and speak in either English or Malay. Or, they can send an SMS by typing in POLISJOH, followed by the message, and sending it to 32728. Messages can be in English, Malay or Mandarin
2. Malaysian High Commissioner N Parameswaran and High Commission staff met yesterday in Johor with Police Chief Hussin Ismail, his deputy and police heads of the Johor districts. They discussed the widespread perception among Singaporeans that it was not safe to travel to Johor because of a rise in crime rate in recent months.

The excerpt covers important points from a piece of news I read this morning to benefit the readers. Well, finally something is being done to protect the "investors" of our tourism industry and to show them that we mean "friendship".

I can still recall how disappointed I was when I took KL's LRT at 2 different time frame, during start-up and years after that. During the first ride, I was so proud of the LRT system which is automated from ticket purchase to entry/exit gate control, that has provided me with similar experience as taking a MRT in Singapore. However, years after that, huge disappointment came in when I have to queue up to purchase ticket from counter and hand the ticket to the gate keeper when exiting. I believe the same questions will arise in the mind of LRT users, "why do we still need someone to sell tickets and handle the gates when everything has been computerised?". This could be a typical example of creating a new system without sufficient effort putting in to upgrade and maintain the efficiency. When the monorail has started its operation, my doubt is "why interchanging of LRT/Monorail was not planned at a centralised building, just like how various MRT lines in Singapore operate?". When you are asking people to fully utilize public transport system, maybe you should start looking at the integration of the whole transport systems, and learn from the neighbour, who has been so successful in the implementation.

Let's hope that the Police Hotline will not be another "white elephant" and there is sufficient (1) support (2) fund (3) maintenance and (4) determination to make sure this is a successful project which could bring in more tourist and income to our country.

Finally, I believe that it is not only a "perception" that it is not safe to travel in Johor, when the authority itself has mentioned that there is a "rise in the crime rate in recent months". Let's bite our tongue, work together and make our country a better place to live in.