"Ex-convict: Why am I being punished again? - The New Paper Wednesday, Mar 26, 2014
SINGAPORE - Released from Changi prison after serving nearly three years for setting a man ablaze, he headed straight to his home on February 16 - and found himself homeless.
Mr Kuu Siau Lam's one-room rental flat in Toa Payoh was occupied by another family. The 68-year-old was furious.
The flat had been recovered and re-allocated by HDB when he was serving his sentence.
All his furniture, electrical appliances and belongings were no longer there. His passport, birth certificate and other important documents were also gone.
Around $6,000 worth of items had been left in the flat before he went to jail, he claimed.
Among the missing items: Two refrigerators, a 32-inch LCD TV, an electric bicycle, antique furniture and the power tools he used when he worked as a carpenter before his conviction.
The HDB had, in repossessing the flat, removed and disposed of the items.
In 2011, he had set his colleague on fire with thinner and a lighter after a spat in their workshop. His co-worker, Mr Kee Yau Chong, suffered burns to more than 28 per cent of his body, including his face, body and arms. Mr Kuu was sentenced to four years' jail.
Six months into his jail term, Mr Kuu, with the help of prison officers, wrote a letter to HDB, saying he wanted to keep his flat and belongings.
But HDB, in a letter, rejected his request, said Mr Kuu.
There was no further correspondence between HDB and himself after that.
Said Mr Kuu in Mandarin: "I've already served my sentence for my crime. I've done my time. So why am I being punished again?"
On the night of his release on February 16, Mr Kuu slept on a deck chair outside a public toilet in Toa Payoh, which was used by cleaning attendants in the day.
With no job and no home to return to, he told The New Paper: "I'm so old already and they took away my home and my belongings. There is no hope left."
His carpenter job paid him about $800 a month. Most of his savings are "gone already", said Mr Kuu.
He now lives on around $300 given to him monthly by the Social Services Office at Toa Payoh. He has no family or relatives, only a neighbourhood friend."
A VERY STRANGE case. Even stranger than FICTION as one would surely expect HDB, in legally exerting its right to re-possess the rental flat from the 'previous tenant' to have taken GREAT CARE in handling the contents in the rental flat!!
Lessons for me are:
1. it is GOOD this case gets to see the light of day so that Mr Kuu can have PROPER recourse on WHAT EXACTLY happened to his belongings AFTER he last wrote to HDB with the prison officers' help!!;
2. HDB will definitely need to address this issue in a VERY PUBLIC and TRANSPARENT manner to re-assure disadvantaged Singaporeans that IF they are ever in such a situation like Mr Kuu, they will NOT suffer the same fate! At least, NOT being informed that the rental flat has been re-possessed and the contents properly accounted for somehow!;
3. if there are mistakes made by HDB, just come out to admit it and be ready to compensate Mr Kuu properly. This will be the right thing to do even without any MP or any other government or NGO intervention. Whatever Mr Kuu had done, he had paid his due with the imprisonment served. He, indeed, should not be punished twice. At least not being able to find his belongings and passports, etc assuming HDB did 'disposed of' the physical assets though not sure whatever happen to the documents Mr Kuu alleged to be missing!
Somewhat disturbing to learn of this case and looking forward to some satisfactory explanation or further revelation from BOTH sides to clear the picture!
Mr Kuu Siau Lam's one-room rental flat in Toa Payoh was occupied by another family. The 68-year-old was furious.
The flat had been recovered and re-allocated by HDB when he was serving his sentence.
All his furniture, electrical appliances and belongings were no longer there. His passport, birth certificate and other important documents were also gone.
Around $6,000 worth of items had been left in the flat before he went to jail, he claimed.
Among the missing items: Two refrigerators, a 32-inch LCD TV, an electric bicycle, antique furniture and the power tools he used when he worked as a carpenter before his conviction.
The HDB had, in repossessing the flat, removed and disposed of the items.
In 2011, he had set his colleague on fire with thinner and a lighter after a spat in their workshop. His co-worker, Mr Kee Yau Chong, suffered burns to more than 28 per cent of his body, including his face, body and arms. Mr Kuu was sentenced to four years' jail.
Six months into his jail term, Mr Kuu, with the help of prison officers, wrote a letter to HDB, saying he wanted to keep his flat and belongings.
But HDB, in a letter, rejected his request, said Mr Kuu.
There was no further correspondence between HDB and himself after that.
Said Mr Kuu in Mandarin: "I've already served my sentence for my crime. I've done my time. So why am I being punished again?"
On the night of his release on February 16, Mr Kuu slept on a deck chair outside a public toilet in Toa Payoh, which was used by cleaning attendants in the day.
With no job and no home to return to, he told The New Paper: "I'm so old already and they took away my home and my belongings. There is no hope left."
His carpenter job paid him about $800 a month. Most of his savings are "gone already", said Mr Kuu.
He now lives on around $300 given to him monthly by the Social Services Office at Toa Payoh. He has no family or relatives, only a neighbourhood friend."
A VERY STRANGE case. Even stranger than FICTION as one would surely expect HDB, in legally exerting its right to re-possess the rental flat from the 'previous tenant' to have taken GREAT CARE in handling the contents in the rental flat!!
Lessons for me are:
1. it is GOOD this case gets to see the light of day so that Mr Kuu can have PROPER recourse on WHAT EXACTLY happened to his belongings AFTER he last wrote to HDB with the prison officers' help!!;
2. HDB will definitely need to address this issue in a VERY PUBLIC and TRANSPARENT manner to re-assure disadvantaged Singaporeans that IF they are ever in such a situation like Mr Kuu, they will NOT suffer the same fate! At least, NOT being informed that the rental flat has been re-possessed and the contents properly accounted for somehow!;
3. if there are mistakes made by HDB, just come out to admit it and be ready to compensate Mr Kuu properly. This will be the right thing to do even without any MP or any other government or NGO intervention. Whatever Mr Kuu had done, he had paid his due with the imprisonment served. He, indeed, should not be punished twice. At least not being able to find his belongings and passports, etc assuming HDB did 'disposed of' the physical assets though not sure whatever happen to the documents Mr Kuu alleged to be missing!
Somewhat disturbing to learn of this case and looking forward to some satisfactory explanation or further revelation from BOTH sides to clear the picture!
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