Just when I think nothing about Singapore's opposition can surprise me, they manage to outdo themselves once more.
This time it's Jamus Lim again – academic, lecturer, associate professor in economics, Workers' Party's man on economic affairs who, lo and behold, doesn't know how company registration works in the country whose MP he is.
So, yesterday Mr. Lim expressed his concern that the fact that NRIC numbers are revealed in ACRA registry may discourage Singaporeans from taking up roles as directors in small companies (working with friends or family, for instance0, for fear of having their sensitive details exposed.
https://www.facebook.com/SingaporeMatters/videos/1745811512659643
Now, I don't know how many times this has to be repeated until it reaches every ignorant in the land – NRIC numbers of company directors have ALWAYS been available through the Bizfile service. This is to protect the clients & customers.
The only difference is that before the recent change you had to pay a small fee of $5.50 to access them. That's all.
Anybody could look up information on anybody in the register if they wanted to.
This has not stopped thousands of Singaporeans from starting and running a few hundred thousand companies, most of them small:
Companies under $1 million in revenue comprise about 3/4 of all private enterprises. All of that, GASP!, despite the fact that their owners and directors have long had their NRIC numbers made available through ACRA.
Jamus Lim has been an MP For 4 years but somehow only now has woken up to the reality of Singapore's corporate transparency, which mandates that these details are revealed in a public register for both local and foreign entrepreneurs registered in the country?
Couldn't he have at least done his homework before speaking in the parliament?
Or is it, perhaps, just a deliberate attempt to play on public ignorance on the matter to score political points?
Why is it all public, again?
To understand why you just have to ask yourself – how many people might have your name? In a nation of 4 million residents nobody is entirely unique. Not even, as it turns out, Lee Kuan Yew:
Being assigned at birth to each person, NRIC is the only way to positively identify a particular individual. This is what it's for.
It's simple, short and unique.
Does it really have to be explained why it's revealed about every person running a business in Singapore, many of whom have interactions with hundreds or thousands of customers each year?
Have commercial scams not taught everybody enough?
Yes, outright crimes are pursued by the police and AGC but if there's any civil dispute with a particular company or people running it, it is necessary for you to know exactly who to sue.
Being able to track a specific individual also reveals how many other businesses they're a part of – or used to be.
It permits both legal redress for any wrongdoing as well as pre-emptive research of any particular company you're about to enter business with – and the people running it – including their corporate history.
You can't do that just by following their name, which many other people can go by.
You need something to identify a particular individual above all doubt. That thing is NRIC.
