‘Time to provide transport fare concessions to the
disabled’
Minister for Transport Lui said that there will be no transport
concessions for polytechnic students and the disabled. …
Why, Mr Lui?
It’s been 13 years since the first call was made by the disabled
community for concessionary travel on the public transport system.
They have sent letters to the transport operators and the Ministry
for Transport, held events at Speakers’ Corner and gone online to
gather support.
Members of Parliament, such as the Workers’ Party’s (WP) Sylvia
Lim, lent their voices to the call. “The government has often said
that we should build an inclusive society,” Lim said in Parliament
in March 2010. “It therefore should not take a back seat on this
issue.”
She added, “The government cannot wash its hands off the matter
by saying that the public transport system is operated commercially
and it is up to the public transport operators (PTOs) to decide.
The disabled have no bargaining power against the big
companies.”
In February 2011, finally a light seemed to have appeared at the
end of the tunnel on the issue. The government unveiled its
“Enabling Masterplan 2012-2016” which aims “to better integrate and
enable people with disabilities.” Among the 41 recommendations in
its 5-year plan was for “operators to provide transport concessions
as part of corporate social responsibility.”
The disabled community and supporters cheered the move.
Barely their weeks later, however, their hopes were dashed.
At least seven MPs “rose to badger” - according to the
Straits Times - Minister for Transport, Mr Lui Tuck Yew on
“how he should force the PTOs to extend concessionary fares to
polytechnic students.”
Non-constituency MP (NCMP) Yee Jenn Jong said “[it] will be a
good gesture by the public transport operators to reciprocate our
government’s generosity by granting this request to these two
groups who [sic] truly need better concessions.” Yee was referring
to the government’s injection of S$1.1b to help the operators
purchase 550 new buses.
In his reply, Minister for Transport Lui Tuck Yew put paid to
any expectations that concessions would be given. He said “he is
‘sympathetic’ to both groups but that it is not possible to address
all these requests immediately or entirely in a single fare
revision exercise.” Lui added that since any fare adjustment for
this year has been postponed, there will thus be no concessions
either.
‘Looking into’ it
If the disabled community feels let down, it is entirely
justified in feeling so.
Back in May 2009, bus operator Singapore Bus Service (SBS) was
reported to be “looking into offering concession fares to commuters
with physical disabilities” and that it was “considering doing this
on its buses first, and on its trains later.”
The possibility of having concessionary travel was naturally
welcomed by the disabled community. “We appreciate that they are
looking into this,” Singapore Disabled People’s Association
secretary Judy Wee said then. “It will cut down on our transport
costs and enable the handicapped to travel more frequently.”
However, this was not to be and there had been no word of any
such concessions from 2009 until Lui’s remarks on Wednesday in
Parliament.
One would ask the PTOs and the Ministry about what took place
between 2009 and 2012, between SBS and the
government with regards to the proposed concessions for bus travel
for the disabled.
In June 2010, The Straits Times tried to find out where the
matter stood. It reported that a check with the ministry drew this
reply: “All concession fares are decided by the operators based on
their business considerations. There is nothing beyond that which
we can share with you on the subject right now.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and
Sports (MCYS), said then: “We have checked with the Ministry of
Transport and understand that transport concessions are decided by
the transport operators.”
The community has been calling for concessions for 13 years.
Lui’s reason that no concessions will be given since there are no
fare adjustments this year smacks of a convenient side-stepping of
the issue. After all, it’s been more than a decade and the matter
is not something which emerged only recently. How much time do the
PTOs and the authorities need?
This year’s Budget is touted as an “inclusive” one and in many
ways it is. The government even dipped into its purse to lend the
PTOs a big hand with its S$1.1b handout to them, despite the
operators making good profits each year for the last decade.
It is thus perplexing why something so simple and compassionate
as fare concessions for the disabled — a practice which other
countries have implemented — has to be delayed or denied each time
it is brought up here in Singapore.
The disabled community is not asking for entitlements but for a
necessity. Members of the community do not earn as much as an
able-bodied person and transport costs eat into their earnings much
more substantially than it does for an average person.
Perhaps it is time, nah, indeed it is time, for the PTOs
themselves — in spite of what Lui has said — to step up and show
some responsibility. Now that it has been given a big hand by the
government in the purchase of hundreds of buses, it should — as Yee
said — reciprocate, and show that it is not devoid of a heart when
it serves the public.
from yahoo news
