I have some random thoughts on some issues, and i realized that these issues actually center around one core subject: how people make choices. Anyway, these are gonna be random thoughts, so i'm gonna be writing in a random manner as well.
Firstly, it's about our government abandoning the plan of building the crooked bridge. Ok, ok, i know it was called the scenic bridge, but i really couldn't see anything so scenic about it. I do, however, see lots of things that are crooked about it, so let's just stick to calling it the crooked bridge instead.
I seldom comment on political stuffs, as i'm a shallow person who's not particularly interested in politics. I believe many people from both countries are gonna have a lot to say about this issue, as in fact too much had already been said since the plan of building a new bridge to replace the Causeway first surfaced. Well, i'm one of the persons who would be affected most by the building or not building of the bridge, so i think i should have my say too.
I was born and brought up in JB and i have close relatives in Singapore. I have never regarded going into Singapore as travelling to another country. When i was still a kid, my dad drove us to Singapore every weekend, and that was more then twenty years ago when the currency values of the two countries were on par, when we didn't have to exchange the currencies to shop in Singapore because Malaysian Ringgit could be used there as it was. Really, unlike fellow Malaysians from the north, for most JB people like me, passing the border via the Causeway is something more common than going to KL.
Over the years, i saw how our currencies devalued, how more and more Malaysians going over to Singapore to work (including myself), how more and more Singaporeans coming over to JB to spend, and how the traffic flow at the Causeway increased to today's ridiculous level. Yes, we have the 2nd-Link, but the exorbitant toll fees and the distance had somehow put people off in travelling by this route. So people still choose to travel by the Causeway, and inherently resulted in traffic congestion at the JB town area as well.
Do i think we need a new bridge to replace the Causeway? Yes and no. I would be glad if there's an alternative route that is at the town area, but i don't think the Causeway should be demolished. Ok, i know about the other reasons given for demolishing the Causeway, such as clearing the water way at the Straits and for vessels to pass by, yadda yadda yadda, but remember, i'm just a shallow person who couldn't care less about all these. I'm merely concerned about the minor things on personal level, which is having smoother traffic for me to commute to work.
So do i think the proposed crooked bridge should be built? No, i don't. In fact, i had been wondering all the while about how we were gonna take care of the water pipes and railway track that run parallel to the Causeway if we were indeed gonna build a crooked bridge. Funny that the concerns of the water pipes and railway track were brought up now as one of the reasons for abandoning the project, when these should have been part of the considerations from the start.
As for the reason that the government scrapped the project because the citizens opposed to building the bridge for opening up the airspace and supplying sand to Singapore, oh puhleeeeaaaasssseee, save me the bullshit. If our government is to be praised for anything, it's definitely not on listening and following the will of the people. Don't make me puke.I don't know what were the real reasons for abandoning the project, when in the first place it was Malaysia who insisted to proceed with it despite Singapore's repeated objection. Seriously, what the reasons were aren't that important anymore; my concern is just what we are gonna do with the CIQ complex that is about to be completed. The construction has been going on for years, and JB people had been putting up with the inconvenience of changing traffic routes for years as well. And i'm not even gonna think about the tax payers' money spent in building the complex and wasted on the preliminary work of the bridge, and also the tax payers' money that's gonna be wasted in compensating the contractor, whom we don't know how it was selected for the job in the first place.
The choices our government made and how they were made really baffled me sometimes. I couldn't refute a word when my Singaporean colleagues laughed at the decision and policy flip-flops made by the Malaysian government. This wasn't the first incident already. Heck, even i feel pissed at this kind of inconsistencies at the national level. To think that people always say women are fickle-minded, i guess it's not only the female species who are prone to have a change of mind, Malaysian government is too.
This post is getting awfully long, and it will get even longer if i continue to write about my thoughts on other issues. So i'm gonna hold on to my random thoughts and pen them down tomorrow.
