SAF to help out for transport disruptions?

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/talk-of-saf-helping-out-in-rail-incidents-sparks-debate

Funnily enough, in the past two days ST's defence correspondent Mr Jermyn Chow has pushed out one print and four online (one being a reproduction of his print piece) articles on the issue. The comments on some of them pretty much sum up the public mood online.

One more thing I would like to add is that this introduces a 'moral hazard' to transport failures. The fact is that while SMRT's train services have been getting better, many Singaporeans have lost much faith in the company and its leadership. The reasons for this loss of faith may not be good, but while work is being done - and is underway - to address them, they will remain in the short term.

While this is very possibly just the drawer plan to end all drawer plans, its abbreviated reporting did it no favour here - perhaps the correspondent caught a phrase that hadn't been cleared for release and typesetted out in the finest PR prose?

Ultimately, it came across as public resources being used as a crutch for a weak organization.

In closing, it is right that the military stand prepared for civil emergencies; after all, Armour and other units helped out at the Hotel New World incident, and much has been said about the 1983 cable car tragedy.

That said, I'm not too clear on the legalities of the SAF assisting in civil situations - does it have to be formally requested, and who from? I don't believe the Statutes cover it, but I would like to be corrected.

The questions of: is this a serious enough emergency? and Is it warranted to deploy precious military force (for after all, the bulk of the manpower will come from conscripts with limited time in-service, possibly the limited pool of combat fit ones)? have been asked.

Knowing who would have to give the go-ahead will certainly throw light upon how things are run.