SINGAPORE: An exclusive look inside Singapore’s only women’s prison by CNA Insider has made it to the list of top 10 trending YouTube videos of 2018 for Singapore.

The video, titled Inside the Women’s Prison, made it to eighth spot on the list. Channel NewsAsia’s digital features team was given unprecedented access to film life behind bars for inmates at Institution A4, formerly known as Changi Women’s Prison.

The video has 817,000 views as of Thursday (Dec 6) and it marks CNA Insider’s first entry into the annual top ten trending videos list. 

“We are extremely grateful that audiences continue to seek out Channel NewsAsia’s content across digital platforms,” said Channel NewsAsia’s chief editor of Digital News Jaime Ho. “We are particularly encouraged by the growth in viewership across YouTube, as seen in the numbers who enjoyed CNA Insider’s exclusive look inside Singapore’s women’s prison.

“In months to come, we will roll out more original news and current affairs content on YouTube, and look forward to providing even more compelling content to all our subscribers.”

READ: Inside the women’s prison – Empathy, rigour and help to turn inmates’ lives around

Singer-songwriter Charlie Lim’s remake of the 1987 National Day classic We Are Singapore topped the list. The video has chalked up more than 2 million views.

READ: NDP 2018: ‘We Are Singapore’ back as theme song, but with a twist

Singaporean singer JJ Lin’s performance of Our Love on Chinese reality TV show Sound of My Dream was the second top trending video.

Meanwhile, videos from local creators Night Owl Cinematics (NOC), Jianhao Tan and Naomi Neo took third, fifth and sixth place respectively. A Chinese New Year video from Mediacorp’s Channel 8 made the ninth, while the 10th spot went to Buzzfeed’s video on different breakfast types in Singapore.

“It is great to witness home-grown content and talents do exceptionally well in the list this year, and it proves that we are more than capable of creating great videos to engage audiences at home and around the region,” said Angeline Leow, head of communications at Google Singapore.

The two non-Singapore related videos that made the list were Portugal’s match against Spain during the 2018 World Cup (4th spot) and AsapSCIENCE’s solution to the Yanny and Laurel audio illusion (7th spot).  

READ: World Cup – Ronaldo hits hat-trick as Portugal deny Spain

The announcement is part of YouTube’s yearly YouTube Rewind recap to see what hooked viewers in 2018.

YouTube’s top trending videos are as follows:

Singapore: Top Trending YouTube Videos (non-music)

1. NDPeeps: We Are Singapore – NDP 2018 Theme Song [Official Music Video]
2. 浙江卫视音乐频道 ZJSTV Music Channel – 欢迎订阅: [ CLIP ] 林俊杰《我们的爱》《梦想的声音2》EP.11 20180112 /浙江卫视官方HD/
3. Ryan Sylvia (Night OwlCinematics): 12 Types of Classmates
4. FIFATV: Portugal v Spain – 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ – MATCH 3
5. Jianhao Tan: 12 TEACHERS YOU’LL NEVER WANT TO MEET
6. Naomi Neo: Getting Married | Naomi Neo’s Wedding
7. AsapSCIENCE: Do You Hear “Yanny” or “Laurel”? (SOLVED with SCIENCE)
8. CNA Insider: Inside Singapore’s Only Women’s Prison | CNA Insider
9. Mediacorp Channel 8: 2018年新传媒全体艺人齐贺岁《阿狗狗旺旺过好年》
10. BuzzFeedVideo: We Tried Four Different Breakfasts In Singapore

Singapore: Top Trending YouTube Videos (music)

1. 杰威爾音樂 JVR Music: 周杰倫 Jay Chou (with 楊瑞代) (等你下課 Waiting For You) 歌詞版MV
2. Maroon 5: Maroon 5 – Girls Like You ft. Cardi B
3. PIGFISH Music Channel: 于文文《體面》動態歌詞版 (前任3:再見前任 插曲)
4. BLACKPINK: BLACKPINK – ‘뚜두뚜두 (DDU-DU DDU-DU)’ M/V
5. NAGASWARA Official Video | Indonesian Music Channel: Siti Badriah – Lagi Syantik- Pretty Full (Official Music Video NAGASWARA)
6. ibighit: BTS (방탄소년단) ‘FAKE LOVE’ Official MV
7. 杰威爾音樂 JVR Music: 周杰倫 Jay Chou (不愛我就拉倒 If You Don’t Love Me, It’s Fine) Official MV 發燒影片華語地區蟬聯第一 美國直衝前二
8. Ariana Grande: Ariana Grande – no tears left to cry
9. JYP Entertainment: TWICE “What is Love?” M/V
10. Bruno Mars: Bruno Mars – Finesse (Remix) [Feat. Cardi B] [Official Video]

Global Top Trending YouTube Videos (non-music)

1. Kylie Jenner: To Our Daughter
2. Dude Perfect: Real Life Trick Shots 2 | Dude Perfect
3. David Dobrik: we broke up
4. Sonell Official: Walmart yodeling kid
5. AsapSCIENCE: Do You Hear “Yanny” or “Laurel”? (SOLVED with SCIENCE)
6. FIFATV: Portugal v Spain – 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ – MATCH 3
7. Primitive Survival Tool: Build Swimming Pool Around Underground House
8. Cobra Kai: Cobra Kai Ep 1 – “Ace Degenerate” – The Karate Kid Saga Continues
9. Amit Bhadana: Behan Bhai Ki School Life – Amit Bhadana
10. KhangProFilm: NGƯỜI TRONG GIANG HỒ PHẦN 6 | LÂM CHẤN KHANG | FULL 4K | TRUYỀN NHÂN QUAN NHỊ CA | PHIM CA NHẠC 2018

Global: Top Trending YouTube Videos (music)

1. Flow La Movie: Te Bote Remix – Casper, Nio García, Darell, Nicky Jam, Bad Bunny, Ozuna | Video Oficial
2. NickyJamTV: Nicky Jam x J. Balvin – X (EQUIS) | Video Oficial | Prod. Afro Bros & Jeon
3. Maroon 5: Maroon 5 – Girls Like You ft. Cardi B
4. Daddy Yankee: Daddy Yankee | Dura (Video Oficial)
5. Ozuna: Ozuna x Romeo Santos – El Farsante (Remix) (Video Oficial)
6. Becky G: Becky G, Natti Natasha – Sin Pijama (Video Oficial)
7. Ultra Music: El Chombo – Dame Tu Cosita feat. Cutty Ranks (Official Video) [Ultra Music]
8. Drake: Drake – God’s Plan
9. Reik: Reik – Me Niego ft. Ozuna, Wisin (Video Oficial)
10. Ozuna: Vaina Loca – Ozuna x Manuel Turizo (Video Oficial)

SINGAPORE: In mid-November, Singapore was named “Smart City of 2018” at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.

Having won the award, what is next? Two seemingly unrelated events that also happened in mid-November provide one possible answer. 

The first was the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting in San Jose. It was no coincidence it was right smack in Silicon Valley.

According to the Financial Times, “tech companies have been using the event to recruit an unprecedented number of cultural anthropologists”. They finally understand that technology is as much about how we live, as it is about how we compute. 

The second was American comic book giant Stan Lee’s passing. He created many of the most loved superheroes many of whom are now part of trillion-dollar blockbuster movies. Why were his characters so popular? The consensus is he made them “relatable” to readers.

Spiderman, for example, frequently felt inadequate and had girl problems; the Avengers often fought amongst themselves, not unlike many management teams. Stan Lee’s characters were relatable because they were equal parts superhero and human – with real-life hopes, fears and foibles like us.

Since the launch of Smart Nation at the end of 2014, citizens have been telling us they want to know what being smart means to them. Beyond buzzwords and headlines, they want to “touch and feel” Smart Nation. 

READ: How do we know when we’ve become a Smart Nation? A commentary

Thus, one answer to what is next, is we can make Smart Nation super relatable to more citizens. And a good way to do that is to better understand how we all live in a Smart Nation. That way, we can design clearer benefits and value that citizens can “touch and feel”.

A SHIFT: FROM VISIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES TO IMPLEMENTATION AND PEOPLE

Making value and benefits clearer is in fact a shift that is underway in many smart cities movements worldwide. Before, the focus was dominated by visions and technologies.  “Citizen-“, “people-“, and “human-centric” were often included as hackneyed cliches. 

Then something happened. City and corporate leaders were increasingly challenged why their slick slides said so much about technology, but so little about people. As a result, now, there is greater emphasis on implementation, and on the value and benefits to citizens. 

A good example in Singapore is the Parking.sg app. In just over a year, using the app instead of peeling parking coupons has become the norm for many drivers. Between its October 2017 launch to March this year, 250,000 vehicles used it 2 million times. By early November, 475,000 vehicles had used it 11 million times. 

Drivers like it because it is convenient, cashless, paperless, saves time, and in some cases, even saves money (when parking sessions ended earlier than planned). Initial reservations have largely dissipated.

The only complaint we still hear is one told to us with an impish grin. Drivers joke they can no longer peel their coupons ten minutes ahead of the time on their watches.

Another example is the Moments of Life app launched in June this year. It is designed around the government services that citizens need at different stages of their lives – such as registering for a child’s birth and locating preschools near them. This makes it easy for busy parents to know and access what they need in one digital platform.

While it is still in pilot phase, and some might criticise the use of life stages as belated (as market segmentation by life stages has been a longstanding private sector practice), the tangible shift to be citizen-centric, instead of government department- or service-centric, is both positive and welcome.

READ: Another Government app? Complain, sure, but after trying it, a commentary

This greater emphasis on implementation, value and benefits has gone hand-in-hand with an expansion in services and projects. The vast adoption of payment services such as PayNow (where funds can be easily transferred within a minute or two), and the proliferation of trials of on-demand buses, autonomous vehicles, and sensors signal that we are one step closer to realising our Smart Nation vision.

As services expand, more and more citizens should be able to “touch and feel” their benefits and value.

TO IMPROVE ADOPTION, FIGHT DISAPPOINTMENT AND DISCONNECT

It is clear momentum has picked up. But adoption of upcoming services and technologies is not guaranteed.

As part of our research on smart cities and digital economies, we often ask citizens to tell us what they know about Smart Nation. Typical responses that cut across age groups continue to be “not sure” and “something to do with technology”. They struggle to elaborate further.

Why is this so despite all the initiatives and successes so far? Our ongoing studies and surveys on technology adoption and experience suggest two barriers have yet to be fully overcome.

The first is disappointment: The new technology neither adds value nor fits their needs. The second is disconnect: The benefits of adopting something new are perceived to accrue mostly to companies and cities, and not to them.

READ: Beneath the digital friendly facade, Singaporeans still reluctant to accept cashless payments, a commentary

Over time, this combination of disconnect and disappointment poses a risk. It will increase resistance to adoption of future services. The momentum that has been steadily building up could stall. This will hinder future Smart Nation efforts. 

What an unfortunate irony that would be. Because our research also shows that citizens, across age groups, are optimistic about technology. A recent workshop with teachers from a local secondary school illustrates this clearly.

We asked them to assess how their work tasks would be changed by new technologies. They had to categorise the tasks under four types of impact: “Improve”, “Stay the Same”, “Replaced”, or “Made Worse”.

They decided that most of the tasks would fall in the first three categories. Only a couple were put into the fourth. They were clearly optimistic.

Citizen optimism is an asset that we can use to improve adoption. A soon-to-retire Singaporean administrative executive in a global firm told us with pride that she enjoyed picking up new technologies at work.

One reason was they were so new that she found herself explaining them to her teenage relatives. Now imagine citizens – young and old – doing this for one another for Smart Nation initiatives. What a wave that would create.

It would be such a pity if instead this optimism was whittled down by disconnect and disappointment. We thus have to fight the disconnect and disappointment.

In the same way that urban designers are encouraged to think about how people would benefit from the streets, buildings, and neighbourhoods they design, we will have to sweat the details about how citizens will benefit and find value in specific Smart Nation initiatives. 

READ: Singapore’s Digital Readiness Blueprint must also address ‘invisible illiteracies’, a commentary

BACK TO SAN JOSE AND STAN LEE

How do we sweat the details? Like the tech companies hiring anthropologists, we can first develop a deep understanding of how citizens live their lives in a Smart Nation. 

That understanding will help us better design clear benefits and value. The ultimate goal will be benefits and value that are super relatable to citizen hopes, fears, and foibles. So that more and more citizens can “touch and feel” what Smart Nation means for them.

And what if we could combine all this with our citizens’ optimism too? Imagine what we could achieve.

We could become super smart.

Poon King Wang is the Director of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, where he also heads the Smart Cities Lab and the Future Digital Economies and Digital Societies initiative.

SINGAPORE: A Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officer on Wednesday (Dec 5) received one month’s jail for obstructing justice by deleting a video that showed a full-time national serviceman (NSF) being pushed into a pump well.

Corporal Kok Yuen Chin died in May after being found unconscious at the bottom of a 12m-deep fire station pump well which was filled with water at Tuas View Fire Station.

Staff Sergeant Adighazali Suhaimi pleaded guilty to one charge of intentionally obstructing the course of justice by deleting the video, which was evidence for criminal investigations into the death of Corporal Kok.

At the time of the offence, Adighazali was an SCDF regular and a Hazardous Materials specialist. He was one of five SCDF officers who were charged over the incident.

READ: ‘Visible injuries’ on body of SCDF NSF sustained in pump well during rescue process: Police

The accused and his colleagues gathered at the fire station on May 13 to celebrate Corporal Kok’s NSF’s completion of National Service, a few days ahead of his Operationally Ready Date (ORD).

He was presented with a plaque and a cake, while Adighazali’s co-accused Staff Sergeant Muhammad Nur Fatwa Mahmood suggested that Corporal Kok undergo the ORD ritual of “kolam”, by entering the pump well.

This ritual is a form of ragging and is prohibited in SCDF, with anti-ragging posters displayed around the fire station.

Even though Corporal Kok said he did not want to undergo the ritual, Fatwa lifted him by his armpits while a few others, including Adighazali, helped carry him towards the pump well, according to evidence presented in court.

While the officers made their way to the pump well and opened the gate, co-accused Lieutenant Kenneth Chong Chee Boon looked out of a window and saw the officers near the well.

He knew they were going to make Corporal Kok enter it, and shouted: “No filming”. After some of the officers raised their hands to show that they were not holding a phone and repeated his instructions back to him, Chong closed the window and did not look in their direction again.

Corporal Kok sat at the edge of the pump well as instructed but appeared scared and made no attempt to enter it, the court heard. 

Fatwa suddenly pushed him forcefully and he fell into the well, submerging without surfacing for air. After trying unsuccessfully to locate him, a few of the officers used a fire engine suction pump to pump water out of the well.

Corporal Kok was taken out of the well at 9.43pm, 36 minutes after he was pushed in. He was taken to hospital and pronounced dead at 11.02pm.

READ: Death of SCDF NSF Kok Yuen Chin: Timeline of events

“DELETE, DELETE” CO-ACCUSED SAYS WHEN SHOWN VIDEO ADIGHAZALI TOOK

Despite Chong’s “no filming” instruction, Adighazali had recorded part of the incident using his mobile phone. The footage began with Corporal Kok standing at the edge of the pump well, and ended just after Fatwa pushed him in.

Some two hours after recording the video, Adighazali was in the locker room of the fire station waiting for the police to arrive when he told Fatwa that he had taken a video of the incident.

He passed his mobile phone to Fatwa. After Fatwa watched it, he told Adighazali “delete, delete” repeatedly.

Adighazali did so, even though he knew the clip was evidence and that police officers were arriving to investigate the case.

The Technology Crime Forensic Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department examined Adighazali’s Apple iPhone 7 a day later, and recovered the deleted video.

Forensic examination showed that it was created at 9.06pm on May 13 and deleted at 11.23pm.

ACCUSED’S CULPABILITY LOWER THAN OFFICER WHO PUSHED VICTIM IN: DEFENCE

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kumaresan Gohulabalan asked for a one-month jail sentence, saying that the accused’s culpability was similar to Fatwa’s.

Fatwa was sentenced to one year and four weeks in jail in October, while the cases for the remaining three officers are pending.

READ: SCDF officer jailed over death of NSF Kok Yuen Chin

Adighazali’s defence lawyer Ashwin Ganapathy asked for a sentence of no more than 14 days, saying that his client deleted the video in the spur of the moment, after giving in to the pressure put on him by Fatwa.

Adighazali had confessed to deleting the video in the very first interview with the investigation officer, he said, and was “so overwhelmed by guilt that he felt the right thing to do was to confess and not continue with the cover-up”.

“It is also important to recognise the state our client was in at the material time,” said the lawyer. “What had supposed to be a joyous occasion quickly turned fatal for one of our client’s men.” 

He said Adighazali was “reduced to a state of panic, guilt and utter worry”, and his culpability is lower than Fatwa, who instigated Adighazali, said the defence.

In response, the prosecutor said that the pressure Adighazali felt was “self-conceived”, as he held the same rank as Fatwa.

READ: Board of Inquiry recommends decommissioning pump wells, review of anti-ragging measures

READ: ‘Committed to eradicating ragging within our ranks’: SCDF implements follow-up actions after NSF death

District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt said he could not agree that the accused’s role or culpability was less than Fatwa.

“Ultimately, he was the one who deleted the video. It was a conscious and deliberate decision to delete the video,” he said. “I also cannot accept that he was under pressure from Fatwa. If there was any pressure at all, it was internal. I cannot give any mitigating weight to that.”

Corporal Kok’s aunt Helen Kok told the media after the hearing that the family gets by a day at a time.

“This (incident), we won’t forget,” she said in Mandarin. “How can we forget.”

READ: Corporal Kok Yuen Chin’s last conversation with his father

KUALA LUMPUR: It is not every day you hear a prime minister offer to resign during a dialogue session.

But Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad did so when a session with taxi drivers turned rowdy last month, after discussions over what they said was preferential treatment given to ride-hailing giant Grab turned sour without a resolution in sight. Many shouted obscenities and stormed out.

CAR-FIRST MALAYSIA

Malaysian taxi drivers have faced immense challenges, not least because private car ownership has been warmly encouraged in the country for decades.

Malaysia has already seen two national car projects, Proton in 1983, and Perodua in 1992 with mixed results. Now there’s talk of a third national car project, to be potentially launched in 2020.

READ: Post-Proton, Malaysia still dreams of a national car, a commentary

This public policy orientation towards cars has resulted in a population with high levels of private car ownership and infrastructure that favours cars rather than public transportation, which makes it ideal for the entry and expansion of a ride-sharing app like Grab.

But Malaysians, particularly those in the capital, are not entirely happy with the status quo.

Political secretary to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, Tony Pua’s recent remarks that the government was looking into a partnership with Grab to replace feeder buses at MRT stations and solve last mile connectivity (given the capital’s underused fixed line rail options), drew questions in the capital.

In the Klang Valley, commuters gripe about last-mile RM3 (S$0.98) fares hiked up by Grab’s RM5 minimum, imposed post-merger with Uber. Students say what used to cost RM2 fares to the train station now rack up RM6. Those working part-time lament that they are back to depending on unreliable bus services.

This rising cost of getting a ride has fuelled talk of improving feeder bus service on social media where many have complained that Grab has been become too expensive for daily use.

Soon after Pua’s comment (“Why provide feeder buses if you can work with Grab?”), Transport Minister Anthony Loke, clarified that the possibility of a Grab partnership is only a “proposal”. 

UNHAPPINESS AND HICCUPS

Grab, which first entered the market as MyTeksi in 2012, received a warm welcome in Malaysia. Conventional taxis in Malaysia were notorious for not using meters, many were old and unkempt, and not considered a safe mode of transportation for women.

In contrast, Grab offered users an easier way to book taxis, get a fare estimate and provided the ability to share your ride information with loved ones.

However, Grab’s merger with Uber in March this year riled up commuters in its home turf of Malaysia and Singapore.

The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) investigated complaints by riders and drivers about increased fares and commissions paid to Grab and reported that effective fares (net of promotions) rose 10 to 15 per cent post merger.

The CCCS eventually fined both companies S$13 million for infringing the Competition Act. The commission also instructed Grab to follow its pre-merger pricing algorithm to avoid excessive price surges and commissions.

But can these one-off punitive actions shape Grab’s future behaviour? And will they translate into better fares and commission rates in Malaysia?

DRIVERS AND COMMUTERS ADJUST

To be sure, Malaysian users haven’t stood by idly; many have taken action in the face of increased Grab fares. Some university students are helping themselves by finding cheaper rides through carpooling via WeChat groups. 

Rachel, a management consultant in Kuala Lumpur used Uber before on a “nearly daily basis”. Since fares increased, she says she uses Grab less: 

I’ve started driving more, and using other apps like MyCar.

Still, many alternatives have only a cash-only payment option which deters her from switching over completely, she says.

Drivers have also been affected by the merger. A recent medical graduate (waiting for a government hospital placement) I talked to said he started driving for Grab a year before the merger.

He pointed out that under Grab, fares are fixed, unlike Uber, which takes into account both time and distance, and Grab drivers feel they lose out on rides during heavy traffic. He has also seen a decrease in his income since the merger.

The expansion of Grab into food delivery services has also faced hiccups. In end-September, GrabFood drivers in Kuala Lumpur went on strike after their incentive fee for deliveries was cut from RM10 to RM5.

Initially, the company attributed the disruption in food delivery services to a technical glitch but came clean after word of the strike spread on social media. Grab eventually issued a statement clarifying that the new incentive scheme had not gone down well with drivers and pledged to be more transparent.

Commuters and drivers feel aggrieved because the drop in drivers’ incomes and dip in affordability post-merger stands in huge contrast with the billions of fund raising and cash burnt by the company, now valued in the billions. 

Commuters and drivers feel aggrieved because the drop in drivers’ incomes and dip in affordability post-merger stands in contrast to the company now valued in the billions. 
Some see Grab in the same light as Uber, a business built by former CEO Travis Kalanick worth billions and yet has drivers earning less than minimum wage.   

A POSITIVE OUTLOOK AMID A MIXED PICTURE FOR GRAB

The largest detractors of Grab’s expansion in Malaysia have been taxi drivers. There are an estimated 30,000 taxi drivers in the Klang Valley, a figure comparable to one-sixth of the total number of public transport vehicles in the country, and they have repeatedly protested the operations of e-hailing companies which have introduced a flood of part-time drivers.

As Mahathir’s townhall showed, the government’s willingness to regulate rather than ban Grab does not sit well with them.

Although the Malaysia Competition Commission did not sanction the merger with Uber, the government has heeded taxi drivers’ demands for fairer competition. In July, the Ministry of Transport introduced new regulations to level the playing field between e-hailing drivers and traditional taxis.

E-hailing drivers now have to adhere to Public Service Vehicle license rules – just like ordinary taxi drivers. They must now have insurance coverage for drivers, passengers and third parties, pass a six-hour course with the Land Transport Board, and go through car inspections – conditions which have deterred many new drivers from signing up.

The regulations are most likely to affect part-time drivers, who make up 75 per cent of the estimated of 200,000 e-hailing drivers in the country. The government is also restricting the commission e-hailing companies can make from each ride, which can be as high as 25 per cent presently.

In Singapore, competition is heating up for Grab again. Launching in Singapore last week, Go-Jek, an Indonesian ride-hailing app that also offers multiple services has sounded the battle alarms.

Apart from its ride-hailing business, it has huge war chests as an e-payments giant. Valued at roughly S$5 billion, Go-Jek might be an evenly matched competitor for Grab. While those in Singapore have embraced Go-Jek’s entry, Malaysia unfortunately does not figure as a key market expansion point in the company’s plans.

READ: When Go-Jek enters Singapore, what consumers, drivers and delivery services can expect, a commentary

That is a pity because Malaysian consumers would likely welcome Go-Jek as a countervailing force that puts downward price pressure on Grab. 

Observers point out that Malaysia’s new guidelines for ride-hailing apps do not impose limitations for the giant, especially if drivers are already compliant.

For users in Malaysia, the hope for a cheaper ride might be the proliferation of other smaller apps, the creation of an aggregator app and the promise of a level playing field. Apps, such as Bellhop in the United States, allow users to compare fares and availability of different ride sharing services.

Uber has threatened to shut down two of these apps in the United States; but, they are looking to expand internationally where smaller local companies may benefit from having their services listed on an aggregator.

Many expect Grab to retain the lion’s share of the ride-hailing market in Malaysia, even with new, albeit smaller players, and as regulatory reforms catch up – and for prices to eventually moderate.

After all, Malaysia’s car-centric policy think has favoured Grab’s expansion. And many Malaysians give credit to MyTeksi-Grab for shaking up an unreliable and moribund taxi sector, regardless of what the taxi drivers might say.

It’s now up to Grab to retain that goodwill with its stakeholders.

Khor Yu Leng is an independent economist at Segi Enam Advisors, and a specialist on the political economy of mobility.