Current Affairs: Mas Selamat

A few days ago, suspected JI terrorist leader escaped from one of Singapore's Maximum Security cells. Like everyone, I was very surprised and upset at our government. I have always believed that Singapore is the most secure and enforced democratic nation on our planet. So the manhunt has begun, yawn.

If you read the news, he escaped from the Whitney Road Detention Centre. Its quite near to the Singapore Chinese Girls' School, a lot of cute girls there. That aside, Posters were put up everywhere and a massive manhunt was under way. Well, at least the police were doing their job, in a desperate attempt to make up for their blunder. For the past few days, this news has been on the headlines, so I might want to talk about this.

So everyone is going around to look for this guy. I doubt anyone would be able that stupid to wonder around like that if he was a fugitive. Anyone smarter than a hamster would definitely hide in his safe haven and create some form of disguise. I can also definitely say that anyone smarter than a hamster would not even try to leave the country's tight border security. Singapore has a very small border and is very very difficult to penetrate, especially if you are a highly wanted priority fugitive. So I am glad that Singapore analysts come to the same conclusion as well. However, there is a critical flaw in this prediction. Namely, that we have to assume that Mas Selamat is smarter than your average hamster. However, he might have escaped simply because he is simply smarter than your average hamster. My sister's hamsters escape very often, so then now, who is not smarter than the average hamster? Not telling.

Hamster jokes aside, Mas Selamat is not the only person inconvenienced by the manhunt operation. According to this report, all land checkpoints were congested due to the thorough scanning and search for this guy. Also, just by being simply not around, Mas Selamat managed to scare the cute girls at Singapore Chinese Girls' School and their parents. Mas Selamat was also not the only person under fire for this incident, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng apologised for the "lapse in security" after the incident was announced.

Is this another repeat of complacency in History? Although I did a search and could not find any information about previous prison breakouts in modern day Singapore history, I will not talk about any previous escapes if any at all. The only information for any kind of prison compromise was on the official Singapore Prison's Website, "1963 Major Prison Disturbance". About the "repeat in history" earlier, remember World War II, Singapore was the impregnable fortress and we did get invaded. Similarly, we believed that our prisons and detention centres were the most secure in the region. We often laughed at the police and law enforcement of our neighbours like Malaysia and Indonesia. Comparing our police to those those around us is like comparing stone age men to our high-tech warriors.

No matter what kind of technology we have, as long as we are complacent, our neighbours will do a better job guarding their prisons despite their lack of new fangled prison technology. Mr Lee Kuen Yew often said that we must not be complacent, because he know that Singapore's fatal weakness is complacency. This "lapse in security" was due to pure complacency, nothing else. Which is why I refer to the WWII invasion as a "repeat in history", we believe that we are safe and secure but a break in happen, just that now its a break out by a terrorist. Guess its not "repeat" but an "alternated occurrence".