Why EIGHT DIFFERENT Elephants? My Take on it!

I watched with great amusement and interest when the news at 5, 8, U and CNA keep on repeating the same OLD news on the "white elephant" event. You can read the news here - AsiaOne and Channelnewsasia.com.

If we are living in Thailand or Cambodia, I am sure Dr Vivan Balakrishnan, the Minster for C.D.Y.S., must be glad to find the 8 white "beautifully-cut" elephants! I quote a passage from 1 website "In legend the Royal White Elephant brought sacred power. It brought fertility." [Link].

Alas, we are not living in those countries where seeing a white elephant, real or otherwise, is a great blessing. What then is a the meaning of a white elephant? I found 1 very interesting explanation and I would like to share with all.

From nationmaster.com, it is explained as such "......In the past, lower grade white elephants were given as gifts to the king's friends and allies. The animals needed a lot of care and, being sacred, could not be put to work, so were a great financial burden on the recipient - and only the monarch and the very rich could afford them. According to one story, white elephants were sometimes given as a present to some enemy (often a lesser noble with whom the king was displeased). The unfortunate recipient, unable to make any profit of it, and obliged to take care of it, would suffer Bankruptcy and ruin......" [link].

Bingo! There we are! So are we breeding a white elephant at Buangkok? I wish our government (or garmen in Singlish lah or cheng hu as described by Ah Goh) can answer that with DEFINITIVE answer and not VAGUE avoidance. It is as good as I asking you "Where is the moon?" and was given and answer such as "It is where it will be. It is there when it is time to be there.". These are not acceptable answers to me!

Why use 8 white elephant and not 1? Look carefully and you should realise from Dhoby Ghaut interchange to Sengkang interchange, Buangkok station should be the 8th station to be open for business! Woodleigh station is still sleeping till all the lingering souls have been removed from that area. It does look bad or rather devastating on his/her heart senses for a passenger on a passing train to see a headless soul sitting on the bench waiting for the ghost train.

Now to the most interesting part - Why 8 DIFFERENT elephants and not 8 UNIFORM elephants? How I wish I know the person(s) who did it and ask them! Ask yourself, isn't it more simpler to make uniform placards from 1 design than to create 8 placards, each with different expressions?

Conspiracy theory and my inner senses tell me the following:

If the creative people(s) put up 8 uniform elephant placards, they will be showing the following messages:

(a) That the station is a white elephant and they don't like a white elephant sitting beside them when they are paying for some stupid fare increase on buses

(b) That they are actually really protesting (in a protest, there are only angry peoples)

(c) That they did not make an "effort" to seek other recourses, so they make 8 relatively easy-to-duplicate placards to protest (that is, protesting for the sake of protesting)

As we all know, the government does not tolerate any kind of anti-establishment activities in a non-legal way. Hence, if the creative people(s) were to be deemed to have committed such activities, they will be arrested very soon. I don't believe there aren't fingerprints on the placards by these people or by the supplier selling the placards to these people. It's a matter of time of the law catching up with them.

Will the police take action? Perhaps the media should quickly seek clarifications from them soon. Then we will know!

So putting up of 8 uniform white elephants is not the way to go! Then how? Put up 8 different white elephants, each with different facial expression! Why is that so that this action is more acceptable to the government (in the hope that they will not pursue further actions)?

(a) Some elephants are smiling and some are sad
(The creative people want to pass the message that they are actually happy to have the station in their area and they appreciate what the government has done for them but they are quite sad that they can't have the benefits of using the station now)

(b) I don't remember reading about any of the elephants has an angry expression
(They want to tell the government that they are not here to protest. Rather, they just want to pass a message to the visiting Minister)

(c) All the 8 different placards take MUCH effort to produce
(They are putting up some "illegal" thing for 1 time only. Because if they are protesting for the sake of protesting, it is much simpler to put up placards cut together - uniformity. Therefore, by putting up 8 unique white placards, they spent so much effort to do it that there won't be a second time.)

All these are my personal opinions on the interesting event that took place on Sunday at Buangkok station. I saluted them for their creativity! For your reading pleasure only!