State media blames unemployed man for S&C arrears

[temasekreview]

Following the widespread furore sparked by a letter published in the Straits Times Forum on 30 September 2009 from an unemployed man who recounted his bitter experience of being brought to court for S&C arrears by his unsympathetic Town Council, the state media has quickly moved in to limit the fallout and as expected, to exonerate the authorities from any blame.

In his letter, Mr Lim Beo Thiam, a 52 year old who has been unemployed for 18 months and lost part of a leg through diabetes relates his unhappy experience with his Town Council. (read letter here)

He claimed that this is the first time he did not pay the S&C charges due to financial difficulties and he was taken to court by Jalan Besar Town Council.

His new debts now ballooned to more than $1,000 which included court penalties and late payment charges.

Read rest of article here:

http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/10/04/state-media-pins-blame-on-serial-defaulter-of-sc-charges/

 

[TRWatch]

No need to click on the link, here is the full article from their "correspondent" Again much of it is cut and paste from 154th

State media pins blame on “serial defaulter” of S&C charges

October 4, 2009 by admin
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From our Correspondent
Following the widespread furore sparked by a letter published in the Straits Times Forum on 30 September 2009 from an unemployed man who recounted his bitter experience of being brought to court for S&C arrears by his unsympathetic Town Council, the state media has quickly moved in to limit the fallout and as expected, to exonerate the authorities from any blame.
In his letter, Mr Lim Beo Thiam, a 52 year old who has been unemployed for 18 months and lost part of a leg through diabetes relates his unhappy experience with his Town Council. (read letter here)
He claimed that this is the first time he did not pay the S&C charges due to financial difficulties and he was taken to court by Jalan Besar Town Council.
His new debts now ballooned to more than $1,000 which included court penalties and late payment charges.
“When I tried to settle subsequent S&C charges to avoid a fresh spiral of hefty penalties for non-payment, I was rejected. The town council ruled that I had to settle the old debt before I could pay the new charges. Naturally, this led to more penalties as my fresh S&C arrears spiked. So, I am now some $3,000 in debt to my town council,” he added.
Mr Lim wrote that he has appealed to his Member of Parliament for help many times but the final reply invariably remained unchanged: pay up.
In a blatantly biased and one-sided article published today, the state media tried to protray Mr Lim as a “serial defaulter” who deserved no public sympathies because he started to default on the S&C charges when he was still employed:
“When approached, the Jalan Besar town council said it has helped Mr Lim in instalment plans for his arrears and allowed him to defer his payments several times. It added that Mr Lim started to default on S&C payments from 1999 when he first bought the flat and was still employed. It had also agreed to waive the penalty fees if he adhered to the instalment plan. Legal action was a last resort.”
[Source: Straits Times]
The Straits Times went on to publish an article on the actions taken by the Town Councils to recover S&C arrears with an emphasis that legal action will only be taken at a “last resort”.
Perhaps the Town Councils should reveal the number of defaulters in the their constituencies and study the real reasons behind the households not paying for the S&C arrears.
In the case of Mr Lim, he is currently unemployed and lose a leg due to diabetes. It is understandable that S&C charges are lower down on his priorities as he needs to pay for other more pressing bills like utility bills.
The town council should be thinking of ways to help him rather than continuing to pester him for the S&C arrears. It is simply not enough just to waive off the charges.
Given that it has millions of dollars in its sinking funds, it can afford to be more generous towards the poor and needy residents living in the estate.