SMRT must be removed from public listing

When was SMRT Corporation listed?
SMRT Corporation was listed on the mainboard of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited on 26 July 2000.

SMRT's concept of shareholders is sheer nonsense. Who is competing with SMRT? No one. Who provided the cost of the network? The people. The SMRT should just break even. It should be considered one of Singapore's national assets for the people. Instead the nonsense we hear is that they must make profits for shareholders. At the citizen's expense.

When Singaporeans were blinded by this IPO nonsense many years ago, they were led to believe by the govt that this was the best way forward. However, I wonder how many actually think this SMRT IPO is really beneficial to the public. I say someone should put a survey up to ask how many think we should delist the SMRT. Why should the SMRT CEO earn $1.8 m. The SMRT is no rocket science. There are many more complicated jobs in Singapore where the CEO really has to crack his brains. For the SMRT, the decision is simply whether to increase the number of trains, cut down interval to ensure people are better served, or to do the opposite and increase the profit. You decide what this CEO has been doing and clearly it is not to the benefit of Singaporeans.

CEO SMRT pay should not be more than $0.5 m at most for a good civil servant to do. This is a public service job and I am sure there are many people in government service who would excel in this position without taxpayers footing the salary of the CEO. When will such nonsense stop in this country. No wonder fewer and fewer people are flying national flags. Why? How can you feel a sense of patriotism in this country when you are being robbed in plain sight. Where is the feeling that the government thinks about the citizens. Yes, the government claims it is looking at the big picture. But remember the small actions count and until the government gets its act together on things that truly benefit Singaporeans at the street level, I am afraid this country is truly becoming Singapore Inc.