Read this letter.
It seems that a person who did not update his address can still borrow money using a NRIC showing the old address. The new occupant at that address faces the harrassment by the loan shark. It seems that nothing can be done about this matter by the authority (i.e. NRIC office).
I suggest that the name of the occupant of an address should be available for checking by the public (and it is already public as shown in the telephone directory), unless the occupant wish it to be kept private. This will allow, for example, a party to a transaction (e.g. loan) to search that a correct address has been given. It will also allow the legal occupant to identify people who are using the address without authority, and for the name to be removed from that address.
I wonder if the NRIC office is still keeping to the old mindset that the address is "confidential". This mindset is causing difficulty to the new occupant at the address.
Tan Kin Lian
It is confidential only for the elites and powerful people. They do not want the masses to know their home address.
ReplyDeleteIf MHA takes up Mr Tan's suggestion, you can be sure that such people's info will be out of bounds. The elites may even change their NRIC address to reflect their company address instead.
10 years ago, you can see the addresses of big honchos in banks and financial firms. How? Just pick up any prospectus of a financial product that is created by that company. The Directors (which can include CEO, Chairman, MD etc) of the institution will be listed down together with their home addresses! I remember mostly (90+%) live in landed properties (mainly Bt Timah area), while the rest stay in D9,10,11 condos.
Nowadays the institutions just put down the bank's HQ address for their Directors in the prospectuses.
The rich people wants to avoid being kidnapped or robbed. That is understandable. They can ask to be removed from the register.
ReplyDeleteThe ordinary people do not have this fear. Instead, they are being harrassed by other people who used their address. So, this facility (which I proposed) can be helpful to ordinary people, to avoid being harrassed wrongly.
We all know the answer to this and all similar problems and issues.
ReplyDeleteIt's NOT the government's responsibility or job.
It is the citizens job to protect himself against loan sharks.
It is the loan shark's job to correctly determine the address of the borrower.
We pay you $1 million dollar a year to listen to you tell us that it is not your job.
So what are you good for?
Answer: Good-for-nothing.
Shameless.
From where I am looking, it seems that the government is "helping" the loan shark by making sure that the address in the NRIC given by the borrower is correct and thus they will have no problem tracing the borrower and harassing the correct person.
ReplyDeleteThe government should instead make any loan given by the loan shark un-enforceable. Anytime a person is harassed, the police will go after them. Thus, whether he got the right or wrong person, he cannot get his money back. If the loan shark has a very low probability of getting his money back, then naturally, he will stop loaning the money.
Nowadays, the rich & elites are still staying at Bukit Timah & DR 9,10 & 11. Not that difficult to guess.
ReplyDelete