'Holistic' appears to be the in word to use recently among government agencies here in Singapore. First used I think by the Minister of Education, Heng Swee Kiat to characterise his approach/contribution towards education policies.
Its usage has now spread to the LTA. In a recent article on a million vehicles on the road, LTA was quoted as saying that it is adopting a holistic package of measures which include building more roads, regulating vehicle growth, implementing traffic engineering solutions, promoting use of public transport and managing traffic demand through increasing usage costs.
The question is if this is 'holistic', then what has LTA been doing all along? Other than 'implementing traffic engineering solutions' whatever that means, all the other measures have been in practice for some time already. The fact that we are STILL having traffic congestion problems mean that such measures have NOT worked. Doing MORE of what that does not work isn't gong to make it magically work!
Then, we have a reply from the Director of Corp Comms MHA in response to a forum query on 'tackling really bad disasters'. MHA apparently has a crisis management structure that would enable it to 'holistically assess and mitigate any evolving situation that could post a threat to Singaporeans'. Whatever it means, we can only hope that their holistic process is more effective than LTA's. But if the response to the recent MRT breakdowns is anything to go by, we shouldn't keep our hopes too high. MRT breakdowns are a walk in the park compared to bad 'disasters', man-made or otherwise.
Holistic I think is nothing but a code word for saying 'same old same old' while keeping their fingers crossed. I'm waiting with anticipation for the SAF to come out with a similar statement that they are also taking a holistic approach towards training. It will probably mean that they will be asking for permission from the enemy first before taking a shot at them!
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