The previous transport minister, the one who introduced BSEP
(bus service enhancement programme) and BCM (Bus Contracting
Model), might had been asked to leave. As not only did he resign,
his constituency was badly affected in the redrawing of electoral
boundaries during the 2015 general elections.
The reason could be that he significantly increased the amount
of money spent on public transport in the government budget. Plus
all the MRT breakdowns that affected public confidence on public
transport and the government. He was probably black-listed and
asked to leave.
Whereas this is just an assumption, the same fate happened to my
constituency MP who brought NRP (neighbourhood renewal programme)
to not only one HDB estate, but two HDB estates during the
2011-2015 term of government.
It’s clear that the government emphasizes a lot on money, that
they black-list people whose expenditure is significantly more than
the average (slightly more should be okay due to inflation), among
other measures.
But, I must say that nowadays, people nolonger look at the price
at face value, but consider the overall cost of the product
throughout its expected duration of use. In other words, they
consider the engine efficiency, maintenance costs and other factors
to determine the product that has the lowest overall price in the
long run (“life cycle costs”).
Would you rather have a cheap product that requires frequent
maintenance, or would you rather have an expensive product that
requires little maintenance? Obviously is the product that is
expensive and requires little maintenance as the total cost
throughout the same amount of lifespan is lower.
^^ but that’s just a general guideline. Overall still need to
look at the life cycle costs. If the life cycle costs of the
expensive product is higher than the life cycle costs of the cheap
product, then also no point.
What the government really wants is the lowest life cycle costs,
not the lowest price. Or whether the product has won any awards or
received good reviews elsewhere (eg. Volvo B9TL used in Hong Kong
and London, thus Singapore also use). I believe it’s the life cycle
costs that determines everything.