Wong Kan Seng's Latest Career Achievement

First, the terrorist Mas Selamat escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre in broad daylight.

Then two detainees at the Subordinate Courts lock-up beat up the police officer supervising them and made an escape bid, also in broad daylight.

And now, a 61-year-old retiree breaks through all the security measures at Changi Airport - without even meaning to.

ST June 24, 2008
Dad flies off using son's passport
He checks in at Changi, clears immigration and gets on Tiger Airways jet to Vietnam
By Carolyn Quek

IN HIS hurry to catch a flight at Changi Airport's Budget Terminal yesterday morning, retiree Ang Heng Soon, 61, grabbed the wrong passport and left home.

He took his 39-year-old son's passport. They had left their passports on the dining table, because the son was also flying from Changi Airport.

The father's mistake, and how he cleared all security checks at the airport and flew to Vietnam, led to a long day for both.

Even with the wrong passport, Mr Ang first checked in at the Tiger Airways counter for his flight to Ho Chi Minh City, where he was headed for a six-day holiday.

He next got past the security check by Certis Cisco officers at the entrance to the restricted passenger area.

Then he ran into problems, failing repeatedly to scan his fingerprint at the immigration Automated Clearance System.

Noticing his difficulty, an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officer directed him to a lane for manual clearance.

There, an officer cleared him to leave Singapore, and he boarded his plane.

Mr Ang told The Straits Times he realised his mistake only during the flight.

You know what will happen next, don't you? The Little People will be punished again. You know, the Cisco guard, the lady at the airport check-in counter, and so on.

The good minister Wong Kan Seng will strut around, point his finger and say, "Tsk tsk ... you so naughty ... you so negligent ... your pay is docked ... you are sacked ..." and then he will probably look at the TV camera and say, "Lee Kuan Yew was right - you Singaporeans are too complacent."

Someone might quietly suggest that in view of all these security lapses, perhaps the Home Affairs Minister is not doing his job very well and should resign. Whereupon Wong Kan Seng's eyes will widen slightly in surprise.

And then he'll say: "Ooh, I am sorry that this has happened. But in Singapore, sacrificing the minister for political expediency is just not right. I am very highly talented, you know. I must be - otherwise why would you be paying me a world-class salary? It will be a tragic loss for Singapore if I were to quit."
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Domestic Maids, Mas Selamat and Why Wong Kan Seng Should Be Fined

Pardon the slightly bizarre title of this post. In a roundabout way, it was inspired by the following article from Today:

2 years on, employers still skirt day-off clause
Should there be a law to get employers to comply?
Friday • April 25, 2008

NEWLY arrived, a maid asked her employer if she could get a rest day. Her employer was incredulous.

"If I wanted to give my maid a day off, I would have hired one from another country," said the employer, who had signed her up on the assumption that maids of some nationalities were more pliant than others.

Faced with an employment contract that requires them to either give their maids a rest day, or compensate them accordingly for working, some Singaporean employers have sought ways to get around the terms or extract the most from their workers.

And this begs the question of how much has truly changed for the 170,000 foreign domestic workers in our midst — two years after the industry association put together a standard contract requiring employers to give maids at least one day off a month.

A Today straw poll of 50 employers found that only 62 per cent gave their maids a rest day.

With some industry watchers criticising the rest-day clause as being too flexible, should legislation be put in place to mandate the issue? ....

There are several simple reasons why many Singaporean employers are reluctant to give their maids a day off.

You see, the maid's work permit comes with numerous conditions. For example, she cannot prostitute herself. She cannot have sex with a boyfriend. She cannot get pregnant. And she cannot (of course) commit any crimes such as shoplifting.

If she does any of the above, then she has breached her work permit conditions and the employer has to repatriate her. And if the maid runs away before the employer can do that, the government will fine the employer $5,000. For that matter, the government will fine the employer $5,000, if the maid runs away for any reason.

If you didn't know any of the above, then either you do not employ a maid, or you didn't read the small print of the Manpower Ministry's work permit conditions.

(On a positive note, maids running away is such a common occurrence that it is possible to buy insurance for it. On a negative note, maids running away is a common occurrence).

Many employers are afraid that if their maid has a day off and gets herself into trouble, the employer will not only have to solve the trouble, but also have to fork out $5,000 as a free gift to the government.

(Not that the government will then help you solve the trouble. It's just a fine, plain & simple).

Intuitively, this smacks of gross unfairness. The employer gets punished not for something he did, but for something that somebody else (the maid) did. Furthermore, once the maid leaves the employer's residence, the employer has no way of monitoring where the maid goes and what she does there.

To encourage employers to give their maids a day off, the government needs to change these ridiculous rules.

I agree that employers should be fined and punished, if they fail to perform their responsibilities as employers - for example, paying the maid's salary on time; providing adequate food and accommodation; and ensuring a safe, secure working environment.

But employers should not be held responsible, for things that a maid may do, of her own free will. When the maid goes out on her rest day, the employer simply has no viable way to ensure that she will not do anything that breaches her work permit conditions.

(Which, by the way, are quite extensive and onerous).

We may draw a curious parallel with Mas Selamat's escape, and PM Lee's determined, if muddled, defence of Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng in Parliament.

Mas Selamat ran away. But PM Lee said that Wong Kan Seng was not at fault and should not be punished in any way. The reason being that Wong Kan Seng personally did not do anything which allowed Mas Selamat to escape.

Strangely, if your maid runs away, it IS your fault and you SHOULD be punished. Even if you did not personally do anything to let her run away (apart from giving her a day off).

Similarly, if your maid becomes pregnant, it IS your fault and you SHOULD be punished. Even if you did not personally do anything to make her pregnant.

Oh well. What can I say? Maids are not terrorists. But then you are not Wong Kan Seng. So the rules remain stacked against you. Wong Kan Seng gets off lightly, but you won't. Even if his lapse has far greater, and graver, implications than yours.

Your runaway maid wouldn't blow up Changi Airport, would she?
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No CCTV. No Grilles. No Guards. No Dogs. No High Fence. Just One Big Open Window, And A Lot of Toilet Paper To Cushion Impact.

I live in a high-rise apartment. When my baby son first started to crawl and walk, I quickly engaged a contractor to install grilles for all the windows. It was a simple safety precaution. Just common sense, really.

Too bad the Ministry of Home Affairs doesn't have common sense.

ST April 21, 2008
Gone in 49 seconds

That is the time it took for terrorist Mas Selamat to leap to freedom, in a re-enactment of his daring escape after he got out of the toilet in the Whitley Road detention centre.
By Ian Lim

IN THE executive summary on the report of Mas Selamat Kastari's escape from Whitley Road Detention Centre (WRDC) on Feb 27, the Committee of Inquiry (COI) found that the detainee could have made his escape on Feb 27 in 49 seconds.

In a re-enactment requested by the COI, a Gurkha guard took 49 seconds to retrace Mas Selamat's possible escape route from the detention centre.

An unsecured window in the toilet of the visitors block allowed him to make the prison breakout.

The executive summary was released by Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng in Parliament on Monday.

On Feb 27, the COI found Mas Selamat was taken out of his cell for his family visit scheduled for 4pm to 4.30pm at the Family Visitation Block.

At 3.35pm, two Gurkha guards escorted him to a locker room to change into civilian clothes.

After changing into a light yellow baju kurung and greenish-grey pants, he was escorted by the two guards and a woman Special Duty Operative (SDO) - a junior Internal Security Department (ISD) officer - to the Family Visitation block at 3.54pm.

He asked to use the toilet next to the family visit room to shave and comb his hair.

One guard stood outside the toilet while the other followed him inside.

Mas Selamat used the urinal cubicle and closed the door. He flipped his pants over the ledge above the door. He left the tap running.

After a few minutes, the guard felt that Mas Selamat was taking too long. He alerted the other guard standing outside the toilet, who then reported to the SDO outside the toilet. The SDO asked a male Assistant Case Officer to check on the toilet.

At 4.05pm, the male SDO kicked open the door of the urinal cubicle, Mas Selamat was not inside.

The ventilation window pane located above this urinal cubicle had been swung open.

An immediate alert was raised that Mas Selamat had escaped.

The COI found that Mas Selamat had about 11 minutes between 3.54pm and 4.05 pm to make his escape.

The COI believes that while in the cubicle, Mas Selamat climbed onto the ledge located just below the ventilation window, pushed open the window and squeezed himself through it.

He probably held on to a water pipe running vertically down the external wall of the toilet.

The COI received forensic evidence from CID that smudges were found on the water pipe, although there were no conclusive fingerprints. A packet of seven rolls of toilet paper was found on the ground, which he could have used to break his fall.

There were also two CCTV cameras mounted where Mas Selamat climbed out, but they were not switched on as they were part of the CCTV system upgrading and the system was still in its testing stage.

There is no conclusive evidence of the exact route Mas Selamat took to escape.

The COI's view is that he was likely to have used a route 20m to the right of the ventilation window, where the inner and outer perimeter fences converged with the enclosed staircase and walkway.

Mas Selamat would have scaled the fence, climbed onto the roof of the enclosed staircase and walkway, and jumped over the converged perimeter fences.

The above report raises many questions in my mind. I'm sure it raises many questions in your minds too, dear readers. Overall, the security just seems so lax. Jurong Bird Park keeps its birds under tighter security.

Your comments, please.
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Very Poor Service By The Straits Times

I think MM Lee will be quite angry with the Straits Times, when he reads this ST article.

ST April 5, 2008
JI MAN MAS SELAMAT'S ESCAPE
Guards were negligent, says MM
His message: Those who think nothing can go wrong are being complacent
By Sue-Ann Chia & Goh Chin Lian

FUGITIVE Mas Selamat Kastari was 'an escape artist' who had evaded arrest many times, and Singapore's security officers knew this, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said yesterday.

Yet, the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist leader was able to lull his minders at the Whitley Road Detention Centre into believing that they had him under control, before he gave them the slip.

'When you are complacent in handling a wily detainee, then you have been negligent,' Mr Lee told The Straits Times in an e-mail interview.

He responded to questions on the issue of complacency for today's Insight feature which takes off from his earlier comments on Mas Selamat's disappearance.

He said last month that the break-out was a 'very severe lesson in complacency'.

Mas Selamat, 47, who had planned to crash a plane into Changi Airport, escaped from Internal Security Department custody on Feb 27. He is still on the run.

The Government has promised a full account of how he escaped, after a three-member panel completes its investigations.

In answering questions posed by The Straits Times, Mr Lee addressed the issue of complacency among citizens, saying: 'Anyone who believes nothing can or will go wrong in Singapore is living in a make-believe world.'

He said Singaporeans are being complacent when they believe that the Government will take care of all security matters.

MPs and political observers interviewed for the Insight feature said decades of peace and prosperity could have caused some Singaporeans to believe the Government had everything under control and nothing could go wrong.

How did complacency creep in? Some observers like former MP Augustine Tan blamed indifference or lack of understanding of the Government's workings.

Others felt the Government was partly to blame.

People's Action Party MP Lim Wee Kiak called complacency a 'side-effect' of an overly successful Government and civil service.

'This has bred a dependency mentality in our population who will blame the civil service and Government if any of their needs are not met,' he noted.

But MM Lee disagreed that the Government deserved to be blamed. He said: 'Complacency sets in when a people have not suffered any shock or setback for a long time.'

Hence, his warnings against complacency over the years, 'because most people believe that bad things will happen to others, not to themselves'.

Let's put it this way. MM Lee is an extremely prominent government leader. Now a terrorist has run away from prison - no matter how you look at it, this is a very major mess-up. One of MM Lee's key tasks is therefore to manage public perception of this matter.

It seems to me that MM Lee is opting for a fairly sophisticated communications strategy to do this. He's striving to place Mas Selamat's escape in a much wider broader context - about the complacency not of his government, but of the entire nation of 4,000,000 Singapore citizens.

Thus MM Lee wants to say that yes, there was a bungle-up at the detention centre; BUT no, it was not really the government's fault (he'll gloss quickly over this part); INSTEAD let's talk about the wider, more-important and very urgent issue of national complacency (that means you, me, Tan Ah Kow and the neighbourhood kopi tiam man - not Wong Kan Seng).

And then the government PR machinery will launch into the "broad complacency" theme - and discuss our complacency about our economic competitiveness; our water supplies; our lack of natural resources; and of our young generation of Singapore citizens who never experienced the racial riots of the 1950s etc.

With perhaps just a little lip service to the real matter - Mas Selamat and MHA's complacency, in February 2008.

(Remember? Or were you successfully distracted already).

Now why did I say that I think MM Lee will be angry? Basically, this communication strategy is quite elaborate. It is not that easy to push this one through. No doubt - MM Lee will have the nation-building cooperation of the nation-building press. But technically speaking, it will still not easy to push this one through; it requires quite a lot of skilful spin on the local media's part.

And the Strait Times really did a bad job. This particular article failed to sell. It is just outright illogical & unpersuasive. Yes, many Singaporeans are dumb enough to be duped by anything. But many other Singaporeans who aren't even particularly bright will go, "Harrrh? What is MM Lee trying to say? Mas Selamat run away, is MY fault arh??"

Yes, that is exactly what the article is trying to say - see these excerpts:

He said last month that the break-out was a 'very severe lesson in complacency'.

...... Mr Lee addressed the issue of complacency among citizens, saying: 'Anyone who believes nothing can or will go wrong in Singapore is living in a make-believe world.'

He said Singaporeans are being complacent when they believe that the Government will take care of all security matters.

... People's Action Party MP Lim Wee Kiak called complacency a 'side-effect' of an overly successful Government and civil service.

... MM Lee disagreed that the Government deserved to be blamed.

When you break down the message like that, it becomes quite obvious how nonsensical it is. Of course citizens should expect their government to take care of a security matter like detaining Mas Selamat - were you going to entrust that task to the security guards at your private condo.

The article is just doing a very bad job of subliminal persuasion, that is all. MM Lee will be very disappointed with the Straits Times.
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The Independence of the Inquiry Commission

A few days ago, Wong Kan Seng told Parliament that an "independent investigation" will be done to find out how the terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre. Today, the Straits Times has an article about the commission of inquiry:

ST March 2, 2008
Commission of inquiry to probe JI terrorist's escape

A THREE-MEMBER Commission of Inquiry (COI) has been set up to investigate the escape of terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari from the Whitley Road Detention Centre last Wednesday afternoon.

Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng vowed on Sunday that no stone will be left unturned and no effort will be spared in tracking down the Singapore Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant chief, who is still on the run after nearly five days of extensive land, sea and air search involving more than 1,000 policemen, soldiers and Special Operation Command forces.

The three commission members appointed to carry out the inquiry are retired High Court judge Goh Joon Seng, now a member of the Council of Presidential Advisors, former Commissioner of Police Tee Tua Ba, who is now Singapore's Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, and Dr Choong May Ling, Deputy Secretary (Security and Corporate Services) of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The commission is expected to complete the inquiry and submit its report within a month.

.......... Mr Wong said the Commission of Inquiry would be thorough in its probe 'so that we can get an objective, balanced and comprehensive report on what took place and what we must do'.

On the commission members, Mr Wong said Mr Goh, who retired from the Supreme Court in 2000 after serving for almost 10 years, has a very good standing in the community and had contributed to the public service in various capacities since 1970.

Mr Tee, 66, who was the Police Commissioner from 1992 to 1997, 'is experienced and the knowledge he has on police operations will add value to the committee', said the Minister.

Dr Choong started her career in the Ministry of Health and has held various senior positions in different ministries before joining the Home Affairs Ministry in December 2003.

I found the above article quite disturbing. Let me elaborate.

Goh Joon Seng is a good choice. This man will know how to ask all the right questions and scrutinise the evidence with a fine-tooth comb. As a former Supreme Court judge, he has plenty of experience doing things like that.

Tee Tua Ba is also a good choice. As the former Commissioner of Police, he will have plenty of experience in security issues. Furthermore, as he has already retired from the Ministry of Home Affairs, we can be reasonably confident that he will be able to operate independently.

But Dr Choong May Ling is a bad choice. I do not know what she's doing there on the committee. For goodness sakes, the woman is the current MHA Deputy Secretary. You cannot put the current MHA Deputy Secretary on the commission and call this an "independent investigation". Clearly there would be potential for conflict of interest.

For the sake of discussion, let's just suppose that the reason why Mas Selamat managed to escape is that the detention centre was poorly-run, under-resourced and had inadequate security controls. This would indicate that the Ministry of Home Affairs has been negligent.

Do we really expect the MHA Deputy Secretary (of Security, no less) to come forward and tell us that? And effectively slap her own face in public? As well as that of her boss, Wong Kan Seng? The man who decides the size of her annual bonus?

Just to be clear, my post has nothing to do with the personal character of Choon May Ling. I know nothing about her. For all I know, she actually might be a very brave, righteous and honest person who would do a thorough investigation and speak the truth. No matter what the personal consequences may be for her.

On the other hand, by virtue of her current work capacity, Choon May Ling, in my opinion, is simply not a suitable candidate. Not for an inquiry commission that is tasked to conduct an independent investigation.

If you need an analogy, it would be like asking one of TT Durai's fellow NKF board directors to investigate the NKF scandal. Some of the directors may actually be honest and capable. But due to the potential conflict of interest, none of them are suitable persons to be conducting the independent investigation. The public would not be able to have confidence that the investigation would indeed be objectively carried out.
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The Great Escape

By now you've heard the news. Mas Selamat is on the loose.

The terrorist had previously hatched plots to attack Changi Airport, the US Embassy, the American Club and the Singapore American School. He had been held under detention, at the Whitley Detention Centre.

On Wednesday afternoon, he escaped when the guard(s) permitted him to use the toilet.


This man walks with a limp in his left leg.
Call the police immediately if you see him.

I urge all bloggers out there to immediately post Mas Selamat's face on their blogs. So that as many people in Singapore as possible will know, and be reminded of what Mas Selamat's face looks like.

It is a very disappointing day for me, to realise how inept and useless the Singapore government has become. To think that we pay the world's highest ministerial salaries to our political leaders. Wong Kan Seng is paid two million dollars per year and he cannot even keep an arrested man under proper lock and key. A terrorist has escaped, for goodness sakes.

I think Wong Kan Seng should resign. Terrorism knows no borders, and Wong Kan Seng's mistake potentially endangers the lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people - not just in Singapore, but in other countries as well. All over the world, elected politicians have been pressed to resign, for much less serious matters.

Okay, that was just some wishful thinking on my part. We know how Singapore works, don't we? It's just another "honest mistake" by our beloved ministers. Lee Kuan Yew will twist and pull Wong Kan Seng's ears in private, I'm sure. But publicly, at least, Wong Kan Seng will ultimately walk away scot-free.

Don't forget - the PAP's good image is at stake. So how could it possibly turn out otherwise? Wong Kan Seng is Deputy Prime Minister, after all. Soon the national spin machine will kick into overdrive to generate a convincing story for the public ....

... as to why our ministers are really still world-class, and deserve their world-class salaries, and the Mas Selamat matter was all just a very honest mistake, and the important thing is that we learn from our mistakes, and not repeat them, (at least not until the next time we make a new honest mistake), and till then, the people of Singapore must be socially cohesive, and be strong, and support their government, as one nation.

You know, the usual crap.

Mas Selamat has managed to run away. But in the end, it will be Wong Kan Seng who makes the really Great Escape.

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