GE 2015, my open letter to Election MP Candidates

Dear Sir and Madam,

My name is Wong Kam Wah, a Singaporean, age 53; an Engineer by education and profession for the past 28 years, and now a public transport Bus Captain.

I am actually disappointed by the usual rhetoric reply by MPs; saying that, for the past 10 years, we have no other choice except to import some 1,000,000 FW into this country; to do those blue collared jobs, which the locals are shunning.

Accordingly, since the locals, do not want “to do this kind blue collar job”, when been “pressured” by the respective company; the MOM has no other choice; but to issue more work permits for foreigner to work here.

Usually, there is no further explanation by MPs on “the why”; nor produced reports or minutes that the respective officials have done their due diligence on the actual root causes for this shunning?

Have the so called tripartite organization – of Government, NTUC and Employer really, really sit down on the same table to debate this issue frankly, candidly and openly; on why majority of the blue collar jobs; whereby the locals are no longer forming the “core” of the said type of workforce. (An idea borrowed from Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say).

Or perhaps, we Singaporean have to accept the hard truth that; is it what other Opposition Party’s claiming it as “profit at all cost”, with more FW the better!

Have the tripartite, spent sufficient time to look into the respective job content design and its operational structured requirement; that the locals are indeed shunning it.

Can the job content be redesigned, to entice more locals to come onboard with pride and dignity?

Can the operational structured or charter of the job be tweaked, so that it will be less mentally and physically stressful and demanding; and also its risk exposure can also be mitigated?

Sir/Madam, I can now give you a real case on hand, on why, I dare said, I am disappointed with the continued influx of FW into our country and the said tripartite is apparently not doing much about it for one particular blue collared job that I am been involved in.

Currently, for the Public Transport Bus Captain profession; Local is no longer forming the core workforce for this industry. Even though the job entry requirement is not high; but the take up rate by Local as Bus Captain (BC) is extreme low.

Do you know Why?

From the interviews that I have conducted recently with many BC in Woodlands Regional Interchange; the result computed, and in my own view;  at this moment, Singaporean, constituted no more than 20% of the approximate 12,000 strong Public Bus Captain workforce here, driving some 4,800 buses daily.

The current ratio is 5:1. 

There are 5 foreign bus captains to 1 local bus captain.  (to me, this is a very shocking data!)

The foreign bus captains are mainly either comes from Malaysia or Chinese PRC on a two year work permit. When we further discount off those senior Local BC (60yrs and above, with retirement age pending), the core ratio will drop further to 6:1.

Sir, I think, we have reached a point of no return for the locals to be able to form the core for this profession, and that the state of affair is not looking good either. 

I am saddened by this report;

I hereby wish to re-quote: NTUC’s Transport and Logistics Cluster published a short article with the following plan of action;

((The Transport and Logistics Cluster plans to equip more locals with driving skills and safe driving abilities, and enable them to embark on jobs such as Bus Captains in the Public Transport industry. This will help meet the growing demand for Bus Captains in the next two to three years. “Source: NTUC This Week”, 11 Jan 2015.))

In my view, NTUC has missed the real picture by a wide margin. Colloquially, to me is like “barking at the wrong Tree”.

It is not the lack of driving skill and safety practices, which the locals are not coming onboard to re-form the “core” for this profession; it is the “soft” and “heart” aspect of this job design and content that are the main hindrances.

The EVA contributed by Bus Captain is beyond value; but it is a struggle to be a Bus Captain (BC), life can be very humbling. 

Daily life, is a hard-life, extremely demanding by passenger, time schedule regimented environment, no default off-day for public holidays, meal break time is on average 22mins and immediately after that, and have to drive for some 178mins before you can you have rest; and many a time, personal life is been excluded from the main stream normal society activities because of their beyond normal working hours.

Furthermore, Bus driving is a high risk environmental job. Bus Captains need to stay calm and cool, and to give 100% of their attention to the road.

I believe, beside public transport industry, there are other similar service industry professions too facing this similar issue above.

Lastly, I hope the Tripartite, can act fast to reverse this unfortunate trend that Singapore is now facing. 

One possible suggestion is that, what if, to mitigate or prevent further local shunning from this profession; 

My hope is that, the next ruling Government can step-in to tweak the current WIS ground rules to exclude the gross income capped at S$2500/- for those working in the beyond normal working hours category type of industry.

Urgently, I implore the Tripartite organization, to quickly make improvement to the “soft” and “heart” aspect of this job; so that more Locals will be motivated and encouraged to come on board with pride and dignity, to join the rank and file as local Bus Captain and not solely continued to rely heavily on FW to help us for our National Economic Defence.

Singaporean must have the courage (aka backbone), and will, to come forward and to defend this economic defence as the Core workforce.

O’ Lord, I hope, the public transport profession will not be another construction industry phenomenon in the making right here in the hour of my watch……sigh.

Thank You, Success and Good Luck in you GE 2015 campaign.

With respect,

Wong Kam Wah

Note: As a Singaporean, I am sincerely grateful to my FW colleagues for “moving people, enhancing lives” here. Salute.

Singbuscaptain.blogspot.sg