SMRT staff not surprised by Desmond Kuek’s resignation, hopeful for change with new chief

SINGAPORE — Employees of embattled rail operator SMRT were not surprised to hear of group chief executive Desmond Kuek’s decision to step down, as they said the writing was on the wall given the pressure placed on him during his tenure.

Some of the staff members approached by TODAY — who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media — felt it was a good time for Mr Kuek to move on.

On Wednesday morning (April 18), SMRT announced that Mr Neo Kian Hong, the permanent secretary for defence development at the Ministry of Defence, would replace Mr Kuek as its group CEO on Aug 1.

Like his predecessor, Mr Neo was a top military man who in 2010 succeeded Mr Kuek as Singapore’s seventh chief of defence force.

Mr Kuek’s 5.5-year tenure with the rail operator was marked by a number of challenges, particularly in the past year as SMRT drew scathing public criticism after a string of high-profile incidents. These included the unprecedented flooding that occurred in the MRT tunnels between Bishan and Braddell MRT stations last October, which paralysed train services and affected 231,000 commuters over a two-day period. About a month later, two trains collided at Joo Koon MRT station, injuring nearly 40 people.

A staff member said Mr Kuek had a “pressuring time” in the hot seat, and he had “sacrificed a lot”. “It’s a good time to move on… and to go back to his family,” said the man who declined to be identified.

He added that speculation had been rife for some time that Mr Kuek would step down, and that it was “a matter of when, and not if”.

A staff member who has been with SMRT for about two years said rumours had been swirling about Mr Kuek’s possible departure as early as a year ago, so the news did not catch him by surprise.

The 29-year-old said employee morale had improved since the Joo Koon train collision last year due to assurances and encouragement from Mr Kuek and chairman Seah Moon Ming. “Ultimately, we’ve to work around a common good to improve train services as much as we can,” he said.

Another employee of about 20 years said that even though unpleasant incidents happened during Mr Kuek’s watch, the SMRT chief would encourage staff members not to give up. “If you make mistakes... we should always learn from them,” the employee in her 50s said.

She noted that train reliability has improved in recent months under Mr Kuek’s leadership, and she was hopeful that Mr Neo would implement more changes so that the company “gets better and better”.

In January and February, the MRT network had already exceeded the mean-kilometre-between-failure target set by the Transport Ministry for next year — 600,000 train kilometres before encountering delays of more than five minutes — Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan told Parliament last month.

One employee, however, questioned why the company had decided on Mr Neo, whose career in the military and public service closely resembled Mr Kuek's, for the top job.

The staff member, who has been with the operator for at least 15 years, said Mr Kuek had angered many employees when he roped in former military officials who were “equally newbies in running a rail company” to take on senior management positions.

He said: “If it had already been proven that a former chief of defence force had failed in the task, it will be a Herculean task for another chief of defence force to restore the faith of all corners. The staff’s concern is what this new CEO has on his mind right now – (is he) more of the same?”