steered clear of the issue

Mandatory for new small school buses to be fitted with seat belts
By Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia | 17 May 2008
...One other issue is cost.

Industry players have said that retrofitting such vehicles will then mean they can accommodate fewer students.

This means lesser revenue for them and they will then have to pass on the increased costs to parents in terms of higher fees.

Asked whether the government could consider helping out parents, [Transport Minister Raymond] Lim steered clear of the issue, saying such across-the-board help, especially when some parents could well afford any extra charges, was not effective.

In almost all developed countries, providing FREE school buses is the job of the Ministry of Education. It's part of the deal that comes with education - free education, free school bus, 1:10 teacher to student ratio etc - and is provided when you pay tax.

Here, you pay tax too, lots of it, and sometimes, you don't even know it because it's not even known as tax - eg. high HDB price, high maid levy, high parking fines, low CPF interest etc - but you get nothing back.

And when you demand - no, beg - for some, this is what you get from your Minister:

"steered clear of the issue"

Haha!


Note to self: Tomorrow, must shoot an email to the 154th ranked local media and demand that this news report be edited, and Asha Popatlal be fired!