Lui Tuck Yew: Not possible for everyone to own a car

Lui Tuck Yew was appointed Transport Minister after the 2011 General Election, immediately placing him in one of the hottest political seats. Now, after 2-1/2 years on the job, he talks to Robin Chanabout wanting to buy a second-hand car, his tough upbringing - and the controversial changes to the COE system.

The Straits Times, 2 Nov 2013

One of your biggest challenges is getting people to swop their cars for public transport. Now that you travel by car, would it be hard for you to make the transition?

If it's just home to work to home, it is possible. I (took public transport to work) for a number of years. Now, in MOT (Ministry of Transport), no. I can go to MOT (by train) as it is next to the MRT station. But if I have to go for a Cabinet meeting, and from (there) do a house visit, it is not so easy.

You might say these are excuses. But the truth is I cannot see myself solely using public transport on a day-to-day basis. So I understand when people say it is hard to give up a car. If I am a salesman, it is so much more productive (with a car). Or for those with a family - they do have a genuine need. So in the Category A and B (changes), I want to make sure the social equity element that was originally part of the certificate of entitlement (COE) system continues. In recent years, it has been crowded out by BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes that have camped in Cat A.

We want to shift that, so those who really need a vehicle are not crowded out completely. But to say everyone, every household (will be able to own a car), I do not think we will be able to have that.


So how often do you actually take public transport nowadays?

I tend to spend more time sitting at bus stops and standing at MRT stations rather than just taking public transport. If I take a bus, I know how crowded that particular bus is, but I am more interested in seeing how the buses are over the one-hour period. Occasionally, of course, and sometimes during weekends and holidays, I still take the trains.

What car do you drive?

A Nissan Prairie. It is a nine-plus-year-old MPV. I had a Nissan Sunny before. At that time, in 2004, the kids were 12 and eight and growing a bit bigger, and with the in-laws and wife, I said I need a car that can take six people. And I've kept it since.

So it will be time to change your car soon. You will be entering in a high COE market?

Looks like it. Of course, I can extend it for another 10 years. I don't think I will do that. I will lose the PARF (preferential additional registration fee) and all that. But I'm not so sure it will last me for another 10 years. I will have to look around.

I don't preclude a second-hand car. It depends on the price (and) how the market will move next year with all these changes. So it's hard to say. But the depreciation (on a new car) is fastest in the first two years. If you are not one of those who hanker after driving a new car, but actually a reliable car, a two- to three-year-old second-hand car makes good sense.


What do you look for in a car?

Reliability, first and foremost, so it doesn't break down on the road and starts in the morning when it is supposed to start. I don't need speed, acceleration. How fast can you go on Singapore roads anyway? And you don't want to go too fast because of the Traffic Police.

I am seriously thinking of a diesel car because I drive very long distances. From home to work is 30km one way. And if I go back and come back to the constituency, that is 100km in a day.


What are your thoughts on private transport? You are implementing new COE rules, using engine power to differentiate mass-market cars from luxury models. But some wonder why you didn't use OMV (open market value) or carbon emissions instead.

There is a group that wants an increase in supply of COEs. But I think people do recognise that there is a growth rate, and the supply is going to be pre-determined by the number who are going to scrap their cars.

We made the tweaks to Category A and Cat B OMV. I think when you explain it to people, the majority would accept that OMV is subject to quite a bit of fluctuation - where you import the car from, whether you have certain fittings, and even currency, whether the yen fluctuates.

After what we have done, 90 per cent of the cars that remain in Cat A would be under $20,000 OMV. So rather than use a pure OMV indicator, what we have done is use a good proxy, but one that is more stable and easier to implement. So the net end result is largely the same.

Generally, people understand that. They want to see what direction COE prices are going, which nobody really knows. I am not going to add to the speculation as to where it will go both before and after February (when the changes take effect), but people can work it out for themselves.

Today, already, one out of two households owns a car, and I don't think any major city even comes close to this. If you want to go even further in that direction, it means you either have gridlock, jams, very high usage charges, or a lot more roads, you lose your greenery and the environment becomes not what we are used to.

So we make those trade-offs, put a lot more emphasis on our transport system, work on the taxis, because we have come up with availability, we are going to step it up further next year, we are going to do more for car sharing, so that when you do need personalised transport, you have options like taxis and car sharing, rather than say that we must all own cars.


The free pre-peak MRT rides scheme - it is not really catching on, is it?

It's reached a point of stability. I personally think we can do some more. It is not going around convincing people or lecturing them, but going to employers, the institutions, and asking what we can work on together. So there are different tools.

And then, of course, along the lines of improving public transport and that level of crowdedness is to make sure we bring in more trains and buses.

So, in 2014 there will be trains coming in; in 2016, the resignalling and all that. Ordering a train takes three to four years; building a new line, seven to 10 (years) - seven if you are lucky. So buses come in faster.


Will there be a tipping point that moves people from using cars to public transport?

It is probably a gradual move. For the people who are used to driving, it is not so easy to win them (over).

It is not so easy to mandate, and say all of you use public transport. You can take very draconian measures and say minus 2 per cent COE growth (to reduce the number of cars). But that would be crazy.

It is not that I am against cars, but (the number of cars) shouldn't grow well above the growth in road capacity. And road capacity going forward is really about 0.5 per cent. Hence we say, that is what it is.


Professor Kishore Mahbubani wrote about Singapore becoming a city of electric cars. What do you think of that idea?

The difficulty is in making that infrastructure available, convincing people of the reliability and performance of the car.

There will be a group that says unless the infrastructure is there, I am not so confident in the performance, I am not prepared to shift. And if there is no shift, how can you justify the infrastructure? Because for it to be possible, you need every other parking lot to have a charging station. And you may need to charge (the car) at your place of work as well. The infrastructure part is not so easy to overcome.

Our position today is we are technologically neutral, so we have moved away from the clean vehicles scheme of the past. I am going to look at you based on carbon emissions. If you have conventional cars that can be very clean, we ought to incentivise them, rather than only a particular technology.

And we need to remind people that at peak hours, even the dirtiest bus is cleaner than the cleanest car, on a per head basis, because the bus will be taking 100 people. So those who say let's put a lot of emphasis, financial resources, I would say spare a thought for all the other things we need to do, especially in public transport.


Your mother passed away when you were very young. What was growing up like for you?

A lot of freedom. My dad was working. My brothers are four years older than me; they are twins and never had time for the younger brother, so they lived life very independently, lots of freedom. It has actually made me realise how lucky I was, because it is a thin line between going down the straight and narrow path and falling by the wayside.

I could have mixed with the wrong crowd. The neighbourhood wasn't the best of neighbourhoods. This was the old Tiong Bahru. You learn to rough it out, to survive in different environments.

But I was also fortunate to be in a good school, primary school, secondary school. So that counteracted some of these influences. (He attended Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road), and then Cambridge University.)

Therefore you do understand why some people could mix with bad company, take up smoking, forget their studies and go astray.


Has politics been what you expected it to be?

I've been in politics for the last 7-1/2 years. Why am I still in politics?

There is a couplet from (Charles) Dickens I remember well (in his novel, A Tale Of Two Cities) and I let it percolate in my mind.

The first line: "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done."

And I think that describes my last 7-1/2 years in politics.

The second line actually says: "It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

Of course, they were talking about a different rest, the rest you find at the end of life's journey, but to me it is still valid, because the rest that I seek is, I hope, infused with abiding satisfaction of having filled the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds' worth of distance run. That is the rest that I seek.

What's for supper?

Foodpark, Block 43 Cambridge Road

- Seafood hor fun: $3

- Prawn balls: $8

- 100 plus: $2.80

- Total: $13.80

THE SUPPER CLUB | LUI TUCK YEW

Part 1: 'A secondhand car makes very good sense'

Part 2: 'I got a C6 for maths in Sec 4'

Supper with Lui Tuck Yew -RazorTV