
I always knew that there were closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras monitoring all the MRT stations in Singapore but being not a regular passenger on the North East Line (NEL), it was the first time I noticed a CCTV camera on the train, in the cabins itself!
Sure ok, there are posters all over the station that announces most frigidly that there are over 40 cameras watching you, “for your safety”, all over the station but the train itself?
It really wasn’t appropriate to say the Big Brother is watching since the gahmen (read: government) hardly thinks of themselves as our brothers. The well known patriarchal government should be more appropriately described as the Big Papa, watching your every move. Yes yes I understand that in this day and age of terrorism, we can never be too careful. Papa must keep the children safe. But what else are they watching for? Are our every moves being watched? And why is it that only NEL trains, operated by SBS Transit have such CCTV systems? The SMRT trains which I regularly travel on doesn’t have such a feature at all.
Either way children, if you’re naughty doing some hanky panky on the MRT, papa will give you the rotan when you get home tonight!
Update: This seems to be a prevailing topic. Realized that in December 2006, Jer has written about CCTV on SMRT train cabins and Liangcai has written about CCTV on the buses. And now we have a complete roundup of all public transport in Singapore for I can assure you that taxis have CCTVs too but it’s probably more for the drivers safety than yours. Whee hurray.