Authorities act on money lenders

Parliament has passed the Money lender's Amendment Bill. Singaporeans can now celebrate. With this new law, the Police can now take action on this menace - the vandalism committed by loan sharks against the properties of the borrowers, and against innocent neighbors whose flats were vandalized by mistake.

It appears that in this law abiding country, there was no law against vandalism in the past - that the Police were powerless to act against the loan sharks and vandals under the existing law. Surely, this cannot be the situation in Singapore?

More worrisome is my feeling that the Police did not act, because they were waiting for a decision at the top level, that this problem needs to be tackled. It seems that we have now developed a culture in Singapore to avoid responsibility and initiative, and to wait for the "boss" to decide for us.

Tan Kin Lian