In their belated clarification today, the CPF Board and Amy Khor said that they had been in constant contact with Ms Irene Yap since at least 2012. They note that Ms Yap was told she could withdraw her Retirement Account savings PROVIDED SHE HAS A PROPERTY TO PLEDGE (more on this at the end).
Now something doesn't add up.
After his sham of a CPF forum, Hri Kumar wrote that:
"Ms Yap is well known to me and my grassroots leaders. We have in fact visited her a few times. I recall she was kind enough in our last visit a few months ago to serve us delicious home-made drinks and cakes. You would have seen from the video that Ms Yap is a feisty lady. She displayed the same energy and passion in my very first public dialogue in 2006, when she spoke on another issue. I am glad that age has not dampened her vigour."
https://m.facebook.com/HriKumarNair/posts/717081888338411
He also told the state-owned Sunday Times:
"This is a resident who has an issue. I spoke with her personally after the dialogue and I’ll be doing my best to assist her. She’s a resident in one of the landed estates in Thomson.”
So we know that Irene Yap is "well-known" to Hri Kumar who in turn knows that she has an issue.
How then could Hri Kumar not know about the communication - or at least the gist of it - between CPF and Irene Yap? Confidentiality restrictions would not have been an issue as Irene Yap would have authorized CPF to disclose the information to him in his capacity as her MP.
Now even if Hri Kumar genuinely did not know that Ms Irene Yap had liaised with the CPF, why didn't he advise her on the specifics of the CPF scheme particularly with regard to pledging of property to allow her to withdraw her RA savings? Could it be that Hri does not know about the technicalities of the CPF scheme himself?
Finally, CPF's clarification avoids addressing the crux of Ms Irene Yap's grievance which many of us share: the money in CPF is our money. If so, we should be entitled to withdraw it upon our retirement with no conditions attached. Why then do we have to pledge our OWN property to withdraw what is ours?
The Alternative View
Source: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Alternative-View/358759327518739?fref=nf