A foul up and all we get is an apology!

Home Affairs Minister Wong Wua Kan Seng has cited a lapse in security at the Whitley Detention Centre on Wednesday as the cause for the escape of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) member Mas Selamat Kastari.

He told MPs, who had raised the matter in Parliament, that Mas Selamat had been taken from his cell to another part of the detention centre for a visit from his family. He then asked to be allowed to visit the toilet, where he escaped.

“This should have never have happened. I am sorry that it has,” said Mr Wong in an update to the House, adding that an independent investigation is underway.

Is that all you can offer Singapore, after this guy has escaped, Wong? With 3 million Singapore dollars of pay p.a., an apology is not good enough. If you have any sense of shame and responsibility at all, you should just resign and shut the hell up for a long time. (Though personally, I would prefer you use a store room somewhere in Parliament house to commit hara-kiri to atone for your disgraceful failures!)

Recalled how George ‘Warmonger’ Bush failed to follow up on intelligence on Osama bin Laden? We all knew what happened on September 11, 2001. I’m going to hold you personally responsible if Mas Selamat managed to pull off a big one after this escape. So, if there are any personal god you believed in, I suggest you put on your sack cloth, act downcast, and fast and pray for the next 40 days that Mas Selamat will be caught!

Frankly, this is not the first time the Home Team has fxxked up. All these for show patrols at the MRT doesn’t make one feel any safer when it has been fxxk ups after fxxk ups since 2004. I have completely lost confidence in the security forces of this country. It’s high time someone admit he has fxxked up and stop shamelessly taking his 3 million dollar annual pay and seek lateral career shift, preferably in Zimbabwe or some other war torn, strife infested African country.

Here’s 3 of recent Home Team boo-boos:

  1. Took Leng How – (exerpt from Wikipedia) On 21 October 2004, when the police officers escorting Took for another round of questioning (in connection with Huang Na’s disappearance) allowed him to drop by at a coffee shop for a meal en route, he went to the toilet and escaped through an open back door. He hailed down a taxi, and asked the driver to send him to the Woodlands Checkpoint. At the checkpoint, Took went to the bus station, where the gate between the roads for buses entering and leaving Singapore had been left open, and used this gate to go onto the road for buses leaving Singapore at 3:38 a.m. in the morning.

  2. Tan Chor Jin – Nicknamed ‘One-Eye Dragon’, Tan shook Singapore with the execution-style slaying of a 41-year-old businessman (nightclub owner Lim Hock Soon at his home in Serangoon) on February 15, 2006. Tan subsequently escaped to Kuala Lumpur, and was only arrested with the assistance of the Royal Malaysian Police Force. He was flown back to Singapore on March 1, 2006.

  3. Richard Yong – (exerpt from Wikipedia) Former NKF chairman, was declared bankrupt on May 16, 2007. After selling personal properties worth $7.5 million, Richard Yong left Singapore without permission early on the morning of May 17 but was arrested on Jul 4 2007 in Hong Kong and extradited back to Singapore on Aug 3 2007 where he was charged the next day for charges that the NKF levied on him as well as escaping from Singapore hours before being declared a bankrupt. Yong said that he had left to settle some personal matters.

And by the way, I didn’t even include the fact that the home team showed up with 4 anti-riot vehicles against some guys who put up some figurines at the Youth Corner to protest against Odex.

That’s a little obsessive display of force and a tad over-reacting, don’t you think?

21 comments

  1. Pingback: SGDaily Roundup: Week 10 « The Singapore Daily

  2. Wow, Nicolas Lazarus… that aid that fugitive part sounds so Red Guard. Did you just read Mao’s Little Red Book or did a study of the Cultural Revolution? I felt sorry for you Nicholas. You are born in the wrong country and wrong era.

    Anyway, 3 million dollars of pay p.a. = NO SLIP UPS & NO FAILURES allowed, geddit? Especially when you shamelessly said you would earn better doing other things and tell the people what they get is value for money. You can convey this message that to your leash holders.

    Now, let’s re-cap (again):

    Fact: Fugitive on the run, 6 days and counting.
    Fact: This is the fourth slip up by our security forces – Took Ling How, Tan Chor Jin, Richard Yong, Mas Selamat.

    In other words, Can’t Sing have had more than enough chances to shake things up and fix the problem that has been there all along but he obviously didn’t. (Or perhaps what he did wasn’t good enough.) And now after 6 days… there’s has been more than enough time for him to hand over and ease over the transition period.

    Tomorrow will be day 7 that Mas Selamat Kastari (MSK) is on the run. The time for Wong Can’t Sing to resign is OVERDUE. And I tell you what, Nicolong… if our security forces is merely using MSK to flush out a few more JI sleeper cells, and this is but a ruse, you will see how quickly the general public turn around and sing Wong Can’t Sing’s praises… lol

    Finally, my patience has run out and I will now do what the Tali-PAP do with the MDA. I am turning off the comments section and only MY views will be heard on MY blog, and I am going to harmonise (aka censor) all views that are pro-TaliPAP. It’s time the TaliPAP taste their own bitter medicine of censorship and the so-called responsible reporting.

  3. seriously, Lazarus, the way you wrote is doing more bad than good for your party. Too bad I have no right to tell you to keep quiet before the party name goes down the drain.

    It also surfaces the problem that in the party, if one guy is down, no one else can take over the task. Is that true of the talents in the party?

    If a ruling party is so full of capable talents, then I’m sure there are candidates who can readily take the job should the present position-holder not perform to expectation. What vacuum and transition is there to speak of?

  4. Why all the emphasis on resignation(s) at this time? How does this help us catch the fugitive? It seems a knee jerk reaction that will only aid the fugitive. What with the transition phase and all.

  5. And why dun you ask Wong kan seng to donate his 3Million to cover cost of food catering for the personnels combing the hills 24hr round as a show of his support?

  6. And who are YOU to decide what the agenda should be, Nicholas Lazarus?

    I ain’t blaming the security forces. Nor am I not behind them. But whoever made the decision to put Mas Selamat in a place less than ‘maximum secured’ should take responsibilities. And after the previous slip-ups, apparently nothing was done to make sure things are inproved. In other words, being the head of Home Affairs, Wong Can’t Sing should resign… NOW… at least as Home Affairs Minister, if not as Deputy PM.

    In fact, if he is even half the man he is, promise us that if the terrorist isn’t caught within a certain number of days (preferrably 3 from the day the guy escaped), he WILL resign. (And of course his time is up, so he can resign NOW.)

    And to be exact, had Wong resigned the same day when Mas Selamat escaped, I can more whole-heartedly support our security forces with the full knowledge that it is no longer run by some psychological eunuch who didn’t have the balls to take up responsibilities when under him, the Home Team has screwed up not once, but 4 times.

  7. There will be a time and a place for assigning blame.

    Now is not that time. Now is the time to show support to the security forces and not demoralise them any further.

  8. Pingback: SG Daily Special: JI Terrorist Escapes « The Singapore Daily

  10. “The truth is that if he is the leader of JI Singapore, he is extra-ordinary”

    So does that mean out world class talents dun know they need to deploy extra-ordinary security officers and measures to take care of extra-ordinary JL leader? or maybe our world class security team under the world class minister unable to deploy extra-ordinary security officers?

    Strange, even people like my uneducated mother knows this.

  13. It is also very convenient to argue that he is extra-ordinary, without the need to ask why he’s kept in a facility that rates far below ‘maximum security’ standards. Even ‘Singapore Boy’s Home’ in Jurong West would have been more challenging compared to that place in Whitley Road, when we look at the high walls surrounding the facility.

    Anyway, you can keep up with your comments, Nicholas. However, when you are the author of this piece, it is my considered opinion no one should waste more time attempting to debate with you.

    I appreciate your contribution to my ads earnings.

  14. I think it is very convenient to regard this man as being disabled. The truth is that if he is the leader of JI Singapore, he is extra-ordinary.

  15. DK: somebody has to be responsible, question is who.

    Prison guard? Toilet cleaner? Or someone who has the moral courage to take the blame?

  16. Nicholas Lazarus: If it is not the fault of our security forces, then whose fault is it?

    If this is a young and fit person escaping with outside help, then I can still understand.
    This person is limping. How the hell did they let a limping man escape?
    He was in the prison in Indonesia from 2003 to 2006. Never escape.
    But now escape while under our detention.

    Surely somebody has to be responsible for this cock up.

  17. nocturne> Why maintain a police force at all then in that case?

    onlooker> LOL!! I seriously don’t know. Maybe you can try the Meet The People session at Wong Kan Seng’s constituency and ask him personally.

    Nicholas Lazarus> Let’s face it, Nicholas! Fact: The man walks with a limp. Fact: He went into toilet without escort – to quote you: knowing he is dangerous. Fact: He was kept in a detention facility, not a high security prison or even the SAF’s detention barracks, and to quote you again – knowing they are extremely deadly and dedicated apprentices of Osama Bin Laden. Fact: It’s not the first time known criminals slipped through. In short, I’ll call a security slip aka snafu what it is, and the head of ministry that caused these entire mess should resign so someone else can fix it. Furthermore, it’s not the security forces I have an issue with. They are mostly conscripts who aren’t paid 3 million a year and one of the highest pay in the world. And finally, I’ll quote some guy in Monty Python: The Holy Grail – I fart in your general direction.

  18. What we have learnt and should always remember are that the JI operatives are extremely dedicated and deadly disciples of Osama Bin Ladin. This particular JI operative was forged from the fires of Afghanistan and perhaps the most intelligent and cunning amongst the organisation. How else could he be their leader! That he has escaped is an indication of how dangerous JI operatives truly are. In my view, it is not the fault of our security forces. It is easy with the benefit of hindsight to criticise but bear in mind that even the CIA and the FBI could not prevent 9-11. Even the British M15 could not prevent the London bombings. We should rally behind and support our security forces and not undermine them.

  19. Why pay them such a high salary?
    Why after the budget surplus announcement???
    Why always toilet “breaks”?

  20. Pingback: Bloggers’ reaction to JI leader’s escape « theonlinecitizen

  21. Why do any real work when we can extradite? The only reason we got him in the first place was because Indonesia was kind enough to ship him back.

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