From the Straits Times:
SINGAPORE does not know if fugitive terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari, the country’s most wanted man, is still in the country more than nine months after he escaped from detention, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Friday.
The leader of the Singapore Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group escaped on Feb 27 from a maximum-security detention centre. The incident badly dented Singapore‘s reputation for tight security.
‘We don’t know. He could be here, he could be overseas,’ Mr Lee told a lunch gathering of the Foreign Correspondents Association.
He said Singapore tried its best ‘to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere’ but added: ‘Short though our borders may be, they are difficult to watch all the time.’
Full report in the Straits Times.
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Sure . . sure . . One day I’ll strike the Toto Hongbao draw.
If he had said “We will keep trying to find and arrest him”, it would sound a lot credible.
“One day we will catch him” ??? Ha ha ha . . .
California dreaming.
Lets look at the issue from the perspective of Security.
MSK was reported to be a man who had suffered a limp injury that cause him to walk unnaturally. This means not as agile as a normal man.
Whether he is dangerous or not is secondary to the fact that he manages to escape and our forces is unable to say where he is.
This is my main concern. Ability. Its a real concern but I hope my fear is unfounded. I feel like an oxymoron. :P
I pray that no terror attack happens in singapore. But if that ever happens, that terrorist(s) could be found if they try to run.
I expect 1st world top grade performance. I mean the surveilance camera performance lah ;)
The Straits Times reported -
‘What’s the lesson out of this? Never let your guard down,’ the prime minister said, …
I think, if Mr Mas Selamat Kastari cannot be traced after 9 months, he is probably no longer here in Singapore. In view of what happened in Mumbai, I think we should switch our focus to preparing for “Singapore’s 9/11″, an event I hope will never happen.
Instead of passing more snide remarks on Mr Wong Kan Seng, TOC and perhaps Mr Tan Kin Lian should petition (again?) or give feedback to the Govt about our concerns about possible terrorist acts in Singapore.
I’m wondering aloud whether our Home Team and Army are prepared logistically and operationally for such an eventuality. Specifically, I want to ask what kind of anti-terrorist response can we mount in the following scenarios:
(1) A Mumbai-style attack on Sentosa’s hotels,
(2) A co-ordinated bombing of strategic corners of Orchard Road on an early Saturday night,
(3) A daring lunch-time attack in Shenton Way,
(4) An MRT train bombing while it is in a tunnel during morning rush hour.
I certainly hope SOPs had already been worked out and ready for action at a moment’s notice. Announcing the intention to set up a Ministry of Homeland Security only after such an event will be too late!
can wong kan seng or you be sacked?
why singapore top brasses always immune from punishments when they made serious mistake?
“You know what? My luck is changing. One day I will strike it big. Trust me lah!”
Sounds good?
Drawing millions of taxpayers’ money, yet unable to even have the slightest inkling of whether Mas Selamat is in Singapore or not!!!
What kind of intelligence organisations do Singapore has? Only good for going after the harmless and political oppositions?
Come on, better stop boasting of Singapore First in this and that, World Class governance, extraordinary ministers … My toes are laughing.
Ha ha ha ha ha ………………..
One day, maybe Singapore will be World Class governed too…haha i like his sense of humour sia.
and I will be owning the world one day too.
Took Leng How walked across the causeway.
Richard Yong went to Changi airport and boarded a plane for Hong Kong.
Mas Selamat escaped through a toilet window.
Hollywood should make a film about our govt.
Mas Selamat escape is a fairy tales story told by educated and learned people. They over do the story until it turn serious issue into comedy. It give me a smile just to think of it.
On rumours that Mas Selamat did not escape but was killed in government custody, Mr Lee said: ‘I have heard that rumour. It’s ridiculous
Well, if the rumours are ridiculous, what can we make of the report that was produced about his escape ?
“Well, if the rumours are ridiculous, what can we make of the report that was produced about his escape ?”
it was done fairly and comprehensively by a completely independent committee.
PM should relieve Wong Kan Seng from some of his responsibilities.
Once free, being the talented person that he is, he should be able to sniff out MSK in no time.
‘We don’t know. He could be here, he could be overseas,’ Mr Lee told a lunch gathering of the Foreign Correspondents Association.
‘One day we will catch him,’ Mr Lee vowed.
On rumours that Mas Selamat did not escape but was killed in government custody, Mr Lee said: ‘I have heard that rumour. It’s ridiculous.’
The audacity and the and the nonchalance in the reply shows pigs do fly and my mother is the Queen of England!
Yes, the escape of the leader of the Singapore Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group from a 1st world detention camp is RIDICULOUS indeed!
feedmetothefish
I am beginning to think all these stories about Mas Selamat escape are not true, and could it be arranged on intend to let him free, nobody knows!
i wonder if there are any sniffing dogs in singapore???They seems to be able to sniff out drugs and narcotics in border but not mas selamat??? We have no blood hound in the forces?
The toilet paper soft landing was the punchline in this episode…
looks like MSK is a genius, able to escape detection for more than 9mths in a small red dot.
WOW!
They probablyescorted Mas Selamat out the front door.to his car..
MSK is the foreign talent. He escaped from a prison and a country governed by scholars and talented people. So talented that they must be kept with miiion $$$$ salaries. But MSK- he’s even better than them. He shld be paid million $ in salary by his bosses!!!
we shld all wear T-shirts with MSK portrait on them along Orchard Rd. To remind the PAP that we have yet to catch him.
Maybe MSK on the front and WKS at the back!!!
lol.
aiyoyo
is MSK taking the best package $$$?
think maybe he hold very high qualifications?
(better than those PEOPLE?)
aiyoyo
CNA :
“We made a mistake.
He’s a very determined man and he was more alert.
He outwitted us and outsmarted us…
But the game is not over, and one day we will catch him,” he said
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/394406/1/.html
Mythical figure needed for future security paranoia.OBL of singapore.
I thought I saw Mas Selamat near the Istana the other day.
Sorry to say this but a 911 or Mumbai in Singapore may be a blessing in disguise. It will validate the existing holes in our security (as partially revealed by Mas Selamat) and others yet unknown. Nobody likes disasters, but without them, complacency breeds uncontrollably, like the greed and madness behind the sub-prime linked crashes.
Wong Kan Seng should had done the right and honourable thing – RESIGN!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately, he is neither right nor honourable in the first place. That taxpayers are footing his RIDICULOUS multi-million pay is plain INJUSTICE of governance.
Regrettably, this is another typical reflection on PAP and its failure of leadership.
#9 Gorilla Voice,
l think we shud ask Jack Neo’s LIANG POPO to play as MSK into a comedy film,
showing how he escape thru’ the toilet’s window with the toilet rolls & other happenings for all to watch. This may be a jackpot for Jack!!!! and laughing all the way to the bank…….
JShing
(4) An MRT train bombing while it is in a tunnel during morning rush hour.
From watching the video they show at MRT stations, we all know that a terrorist will always
a) wear a cap
b) leave a big black bag behind on a Priority seat
c) smile cruelly when he activates the bomb by handphone
We also know that when such a person leave the bag behind, we should not panic and run as far as possible away from the bag, but calmly report the matter to the MRT driver while the bag is within exploding radius from us.
We must always be A.L.E.R.T and we will all be S.A.F.E
Does the PM knows the word “SHAME”?
I take the train every day and it is always so packed and I always have this fear that a terrorist will set off a bomb one day.
The PM does not take the train (why don’t he try doing so like Badawi, see how bad it is). He is protected by bodyguards, of course he can take his own sweet time and say “One day, we will catch him.”
The fact that Mr Wong K S did not even bother to step down (unlike the Indian Minister int he Mumbai attack0 means he is waiting for something like the Mumbai attack to take action. Recently, the home team is no longer wayanging around Singapore. There is no urgency to catch MAS SELEMAT at all. The security details who patrol the MRT station only google at girls and if they spot a pretty lady (like my friend) they ask to check her bag.
No wonder a limping terrorist can get away.
I recommend you guys to google this name and you will see very stark similarities in MSK’s escape story. ame height, 1.6m, scaled a wall, changed out of prison garb, spotted by civilians, heightened manhunt etc.
Difference is, the escapee was captured within 2 weeks. Also, the police chief was so quick to come out in the open to admit security lapses and take responsibility.
Read for yourself the story of Isreali serial rapist Benny Sela.
Click Here!
Hope the link works out fine. If not just copy and paste url.
Indian Home Minister resigned over the terrorist attack in Mumbai. Our home affairs minister continues drawing his multi-million dollar salary per year after the escape of a top terrorist.
The probability of me striking the top TOTO prize is higher than our govt catching the limping Mas.
Even if WKS steps down at the next general election, he will be given a high-paying job at a govt linked company!!!!
WKS nust step down!
The TOC “bongo”, “wanaba”, “hanjo pucho” and “half-baked” people always cried for WKS to step down. Why cry aloud only? Go to HLP and make it known. Raise awareness, raise flags, raise placards, do dances and raise your hands and legs but of course you can only do this thing lying down on your bloody backs!!
To this end, there is a good platform for your elected opposition representative do in the Parliament. But what happened? What has Hougang MP done in our Parliament?
He was hiden there under the chair or looking down and found wanting at the crucial moment. He had FAILED to response when CHALLENGED? What the hack he was voted and got paid for? This one of the kind OPPOSITION should be promptly replaced. The Hougang MP should also step down!!! or kicked him out in the next GE.
Wong kan seng is more suited to be a school teacher.
WKS will not resign, its all in the family, you scratch my back, I scratch yours, for the rest of the people . . . . . who cares!
if mas selamat happen to be related to any of these idiots, I think he can even walk through not 1 but a row of toilets with prison guards, and still no one will even notice he’s already gone and most probably having his spa session in batam island, and then . . . . . . . . after that ALERT! ALERT! terrorist escapes ALERT! ALERT! very the wayang . . .
Our PM really got no brain, of course if mas is not in spore, then he will be out of spore, unlesss he is dead, then nothing to say.
If Mas hears what pM said he will laugh and says : one day I will bomb singapore, hahaha
“He outwitted us and outsmarted us…”
Who is the ‘us’ here?
Is there a challenge of wits in the case? Any ordinary person with common sense will attempt and do what Mas Selemat had succeeded in doing with that sort of lax security.
Didn’t MM say it’s a sign of complacency?
One day, they will be voted out…
this one more critical, a clear and present mirsery, than Selamat.
can wong kan seng or you be sacked?
not unless if an immedidate replacement, who is equally familiar with his job scope, is available.
after all the brave talk by the dpm and co-ordinating minister, they are unable to find him? wasted a lot of resources and money didn’t they? and nobody at the top has to take the rap?
anyway if they cannot find phey yew kok in the seventies and recently that david chap, they lawyer who fled with millions, do you think they stand a chance to find someone with regional connections?? NO HOPE lah! just a wish and a pipe dream!
Dear PM,
if you think the rumours that Mas Selamat killed in custody is ridiculous then you also ought to think that WKS continuing to be the Home Minister is just as ridiculous, don’t you think?
As long as the matter is not fully addressed, you should count yourself lucky that the people are only asking for WKS to step down. The more, you, as PM of the country, does nothing about the situation, the more the inclination and temptation for the people to ask for your head to roll too.
Care to give us a timelime before you decide to take action on those really responsible for MSK’s escape instead of the scapegoats offered to us by the actions taken against the junior officers.
Where is the moral justification for your non-action in the area of accountability? Please answer us.
Thank You.
I do not agree that WKS should fall on his own sword for Mas Selamat’s escape. He is a good administrator, and there is nothing he could have conceivably done to prevent this escape. Performing harakiri will be a cop-out.
Like my old mentor instructed mewhen I screwed up…. “Tell me what you are going to do to clean up the mess, to prevent a recurrence, and tell me what you are going to do to ameliorate the likely consequences that may arise from this mistake.”
One day we will vote PAP out ….yeah right
Singapore will win WORLD CUP….we’ll get there one day :)
Maybe Mas Selamat is Wong Kan Seng in disguise!
That’s why we never got him..He’s right there in front of us the whole time and we don’ know it!
Ditto.
sured 1 day the pap government would get him
dead or alive
most probadLEE
dead
that when the family would send a reminder note to the pap council
for silver dollars contribution
meanwhile
the minister of home affair
shall be employed
as though nothing has happenned
you know
liked mumbai recent bombing is just a coincidence
and a honest mistakes committed by the indians commandos…
#42: Care to give us a timelime before you decide to take action on those really responsible for MSK’s escape instead of the scapegoats offered to us by the actions taken against the junior officers.
Where is the moral justification for your non-action in the area of accountability? Please answer us.
What are the benefits of vindicatory responses? To make by-standers feel good? But that merely stroke the emotion, and it does not do the future any good.
But there could be other benefits: For example, punishments could deter repeated offences to some extend (seriously, I don’t believe punishments during NSF work a lot). Firing everyone up and down the line could bring in better replacements, and hence reduce possibility of repeated mistakes.
So I think the question of whether it is worthwhile to fire the ministers lies in whether we can find a replacement for them, and I suspect is it not easily. A large of their jobs involve working knowledge of the civil administration system. There are not many, (probably not at all), candidates we can find. (Just think about how difficult is it to find an immediate replacement for a colleague who has just left.)
“So I think the question of whether it is worthwhile to fire the ministers lies in whether we can find a replacement for them, and I suspect is it not easily. A large of their jobs involve working knowledge of the civil administration system. There are not many, (probably not at all), candidates we can find. (Just think about how difficult is it to find an immediate replacement for a colleague who has just left.)”
Care to tell whether you are in private or public sector. DBS has their head changed not too long ago and the recent retrenchment exercise is now public knowledge.
Ministers get rotated in the different ministries in our case. When in my younger days, I used to have a departmental boss (FT actually) who told me this “no one is indispensable, including me”. me actually mean him, the FT boss himself.
In life, nothing is easy and we have to work hard for improvement and not excuse when things are plainly there for all to see.
Care to tell whether you are in private or public sector. DBS has their head changed not too long ago and the recent retrenchment exercise is now public knowledge.
Sorry, I don’t wish to reveal, and I don’t think it matters. My opinions should be judged as they are, and not influence by my occupation.
What I have been trying to say is firing people works in some cases and don’t in other. In some cases, when some people f*ks up, emotions aside, it can be difficult to know if it is better fire them or not. We probably can even see this at our own work places.