A Residents’ Committee (RC) in MacPherson constituency that drew flak from residents for charging Singaporeans three times more than “new citizens” for tickets to a community event has apologised and offered refunds to all who attended the event.
The RC charged citizens $3 and new citizens $1 for an open house held last Sunday (30 July).
The move also left MacPherson’s Member of Parliament Tin Pei Ling “very upset”.
A statement posted on the MacPherson RC Zone B page on Thursday (3 Aug) said the move had no “ill intent” and recognised that it was an “unwise decision”. It explained, “We thought that a lower ticket price will encourage more new citizens to come forward. In doing so, we have neglected the feelings of the majority of our residents. It was a once-off decision by our committee to charge differently and definitely not a policy of the MacPherson grassroots.”
It added, “As fellow residents, we have never harboured any intent of discriminating fellow citizens.”
Tin said the mistake “should not have happened”. Referring to the incident, she wrote on Facebook, “We have counseled the RC and tightened the internal vetting process. The RC had no ill intention but still, it was a mistake that should not have happened.”
Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com
