Just to be sure, I asked if they were MRT staff and the man replied - in an accent that suggested he was a Chinese national - that they work with the (SMRT) bus company. I asked him whether he understood the announcement about eating and drinking not being allowed. He responded with a half smile.

I also once came across an entire group of Boy Scouts literally having a picnic inside the MRT carriage. There were more than 30 of them, munching away on fast-food hamburgers and consuming soft drinks.

All wore uniforms heavily studded with various badges to indicate that they had successfully undergone 'leadership' courses. They would leave school with impressive ECA (extra curricular activities) records. Yet they had zero regard for public rules and regulations.

On another occasion, I saw a bus driver tell off two teenage girls for eating ice-cream in the bus. The two girls got off the bus, but not before hurling obscenities at the driver.

Maybe, more additional officers should be employed just to catch the offenders. Unfortunately, this might take us one step closer towards being a police state. But it will at least keep our buses and trains cleaner.

Richard Seah Siew Sai