In what is surely an unhelpful and misguided bizarre and darkly humorous article, Chua Lee Hoong of the Straits Times writes about the case of the white elephant street signs, saying that "Laws become meaningless if too many remain unenforced." Surely Lee Hoong the opposite is also certainly true - laws become meaningless if they are enforced to the point of absurdity. The point of her article is that while the elephant protest may seem charming, fun, and harmless, it is an "unwanted precedent" that will lead to chaos and danger. She actually uses the phrase "white elephants today, hammer and sickle tomorrow".


Let's be a bit pragmatic shall we? This is a normal run-of-the-mill municipal dispute, with a public protest of grace and humor. If the SMRTC is unhappy about the white elephant signs stuck in the ground in front of its premises, it's solution is a simple one. Take them out of the ground! Since they were put in the ground without a permit, no one can stop SMRTC from doing so.


See previous postings here and here.

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Labels: Singapore

# posted @ 7:19 AM