Electronic Queuing

I read in the newspapers that a grandparent queued for several days for a place in the kindergarten for a grandchild. They felt that it was worth putting in the sacrifice for the grandchild. We also read about several day queues for places in primary school and for new property launches.

The several day queues have become ridiculous but is a feature of Singapore life - the outcome of our kiasu syndrome. There is a more sensible way to handle the queue. It is the electronic queue.  It is possible to develop a portal to allow a queue to be formed for any type of high preference activity and for electronic balloting to be conducted to find the priority in the queue among all the applicants who submitted their application by a closing date.

Tan Kin Lian

Here is my letter printed in the Straits Times Online Forum.