I am a strong supporter of consumer rights, and I feel very dissapointment if any business or authority is allowed to take advantage of people without facing determined consequences. I have on mnay ocassions written in to organisations that have ignored my rights, and those among them that truly put the customer atthe forefront have responded well.
But what about authorities that ignore your rights. In this case I am speaking about Singapore and their Land Transport Authority. I find it rather odd that all vehicles from overseas (basically, that means from Malaysia) entering Singapore by road are not able to check the amount that they are required to pay on their way out, before the checkpoint. Without knowing this, the authority is basically expecting that you top up the autopass beyond what you might need to pay without knowing what that amount is. If you you are short of the required amount by even a cent, you are subjected to a fine in addition to paying the difference.
There are two counts of consumer rights that are violated here:
1) The right to accurate information, ie how much I owe the land authority before getting to the checkpoint. Imposing a fine when insufficient information is given to begin with is clearly unlawful
2) The right to pay only the amount required, and not be forced into paying more than necessary.
Sadly, Malaysians who visit Singapore only once in a while by car are really the losers. I wonder how many people have actually questioned this? I did and and what I got was two 3 Singaporean uniformed officers threatening me with "Are we looking for trouble?" at the checkpoint. Clearly I struck a sensitive note since the points I stated were valid. When I asked this young officer who threatened me to give me his name later, he claimed it was not necessary. So much for responsible and well manered Singaporean uniformed personnel!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Fire in the hole!
Yesterday morning started off just like any other day, with my wife and I rising for morning prayers. It was Monday, and we were both tired from had a funfilled weekend, so we thought of catching a few winks more before getting ready for work.
About 6.45 am, the sky appeared still very gloomy and it soon started to pour cats and dogs - a full scale thunderstorm that was about to make the morning very eventful. My car alarm went off several times before, so I had to go down and reset it. By this time it was 7.45 am. I happened to be on emergency standby duty for the manufacturing facility I work at, so I checked the pager for good measure. There were three pages and the message was horrifiying - the plant was on fire!! Apparently the lighting had sparked a fire in our storage facility!
Needless to say, I pulled on my jeans and raced to the emergency coordination room to handle the situation. This was not a simulation. It was the real deal. A real fire, with real people and assets at stake. By 7.30 am all the emergency team members were present, and two fire fighting teams were at site ready for action. By 8.00 am, the police and another 5 fire fighting teams were at site. We even had police helicopter take one of our staff up for ariel view of the situation.
The state secretary of defense also dropped by to asses the situation. I recall a moment when he looked around the emergency coordination room and asked if all the entire emergency response team (ERT) consisted of local people and seemed impressed when our managing director told him it was. He left after being satisfied that the situation was being well managed.
Thanks to the emergency preparedness of the site teams, and the collective effort of the authorities and staff, we managed to contain the fire and avert a major disaster. An all clear was called at 11.21 am after confirming that the fire was put out completely. Its comforting to know that the authorities did react quickly when required.
As always, there are many lessons to learn from such an event. I expect we will be running through a post mortem of the events that occured. Still, I am glad to have been part of a successful emergency response. Malaysia boleh!
About 6.45 am, the sky appeared still very gloomy and it soon started to pour cats and dogs - a full scale thunderstorm that was about to make the morning very eventful. My car alarm went off several times before, so I had to go down and reset it. By this time it was 7.45 am. I happened to be on emergency standby duty for the manufacturing facility I work at, so I checked the pager for good measure. There were three pages and the message was horrifiying - the plant was on fire!! Apparently the lighting had sparked a fire in our storage facility!
Needless to say, I pulled on my jeans and raced to the emergency coordination room to handle the situation. This was not a simulation. It was the real deal. A real fire, with real people and assets at stake. By 7.30 am all the emergency team members were present, and two fire fighting teams were at site ready for action. By 8.00 am, the police and another 5 fire fighting teams were at site. We even had police helicopter take one of our staff up for ariel view of the situation.
The state secretary of defense also dropped by to asses the situation. I recall a moment when he looked around the emergency coordination room and asked if all the entire emergency response team (ERT) consisted of local people and seemed impressed when our managing director told him it was. He left after being satisfied that the situation was being well managed.
Thanks to the emergency preparedness of the site teams, and the collective effort of the authorities and staff, we managed to contain the fire and avert a major disaster. An all clear was called at 11.21 am after confirming that the fire was put out completely. Its comforting to know that the authorities did react quickly when required.
As always, there are many lessons to learn from such an event. I expect we will be running through a post mortem of the events that occured. Still, I am glad to have been part of a successful emergency response. Malaysia boleh!
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