Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Fallout from Mas Selamat Kastari’s escape

3 months after the escape of Mas Selamat Kastari, there’s finally some fallout. Singapore has sacked the superintendent of the Whitley Road Detention Centre and demoted two elite Nepalese Gurkha guards.

A special duty operative, her supervisor, two other officers and the chief warder were also disciplined. Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng is safe. As expected, Mr. Wong was not sacked and kept his position as Home Minister.

Mas Selamat Kastari escaped from the detention centre via a toilet window, limped/run away from the biggest manhunt in Singapore’s history in 11 minutes flat and did all this on his own without any help. Oh, and the government still believe Kastari is still in Singapore.

But it’s not all bad. I am glad the Singapore government is now at least admitting that he could have fled the country already. To me, that’s progress. Kastari’s escape has punched a hole in Singapore's reputation for security; let’s not make a new one for failing to admit the obvious.

Now, I hope they will stop these measures at the checkpoints. That way maybe traffic will go back to normal.

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