Parliamentary foot fetish 4: What are feet?

by Bertha Henson

WHAT are feet?

What’s with some people’s obsession with Dr Koh Poh Koon? He seems to be a favorite football in some quarters to be kicked around. So he says that the HDB is not a bank, and people jump on him. They stamp their feet and kick up dust. Why? Because he was defeated in the Punggol East by-election and entered Parliament via a GRC? Because he once put both feet in his mouth by talking about how every household has a car and he has two? Because it’s just too good to pass up puns about a colorectal surgeon?

So what’s the story with him now? It has to do with a question he answered in his capacity as Minister of State for National Development. It was about HDB measures to help households that had fallen on hard times with their HDB mortgage payments. His answer was pretty standard, such as restructuring or deferring HDB mortgage payments, helping them to downsize or move into a public rental flat.

Then comes this question from MP Joan Pereira, and it has to do with people who did not take an HDB loan but a bank loan: Would HDB consider providing such financial help to HDB owners who have taken loans from the banks?

His reply: “Madame Speaker, for flat owners who have financial difficulties, the banks would usually alert HDB when the flat owners start to default on their payments. In general, HDB will assist flat owners who are in difficulties to seek help from social support agencies by recommending that they get the job, if they are out of a job, or to provide them with temporary financial support through the SSO.” (SSOs refer to Social Service Offices.)

He added that “HDB, however, is not a bank and is not able to offer personal loans to flat owners, although we can help them with restructuring their HDB mortgage loans.”

He is being misinterpreted as telling people they should sell their flats if they can’t afford them, as the HDB is not a bank. That’s mighty unfair. The HDB does not offer personal loans, that’s for sure. Yes, it offers housing loans like banks do – and people who take up private bank loans should realize that the private sector is rather less sympathetic to hardship cases than the HDB would be.

Perhaps, he should have said that the HDB would consider taking over the bank loan? Cannot be. Or maybe offer some kind of temporary relief? But why HDB when there are other agencies which can help such families with their money problems?

Sigh. Poor Dr Koh. He’s becoming the next Tin Pei Ling. Still, Ms Tin seems to have carved a new image for herself very successfully. Let’s see how Dr Koh does.

.

Featured image HDB by Flickr user Brian Evans. CC BY-ND 2.0.

If you like this article, Like the Middle Ground‘s Facebook Page as well!

For breaking news, you can talk to us via email.

The post Parliamentary foot fetish 4: What are feet? appeared first on The Middle Ground.

- Bertha Henson