Memories...
Saturday, March 01, 2008
ON THE MOST WANTED MAN IN SINGAPORE (PART 2)
I felt my MP Dr Teo Ho Pin asked a very good & pertinent question to DPM Wong Kan Seng in Parliament yesterdae.
Why was the public only informed of Mas Selamat's escape at 8 pm, almost 4 hours after he had escaped??
Dr Teo further asked whether it would have been better had the public been informed much earlier so that Singaporeans could take precautions & also aid in the detection of Kastari.
This man is a terrorist leader & a mastermind of JI for christ sake. Yes, he was unarmed, and yes he is limping. But what can stop this man from easily getting hold of a knife to take & harm potential hostages?
I understand that the authorities may not want to alarm the public too much, or give away too much info, but I just feel that the fierce urgency of this issue needs to be more severely hammered home to the public.
I was half expecting all the media channels to be flashing notices of his escape 24/7 but apparently that didnt occur.
I expected NUS to send a mass mail to all undergrads like us to warn us of the danger but that didnt occur. (Maybe coz NUS thinks its too far away from Whitley Road but thats not the point)
I expected a bounty or reward to be placed on this man's capture. Its not about being materialistic, but even the CIA places millions of cash for Osama Bin Laden's capture. And this could possibly encourage more citizens to be on the lookout for him, while enticing potential accomplices to feed info on Kastari.
What really brought home the message to me was when I was riding home just now. No i didnt see any police cars which reminded me. Rather, I rode past a primary school along Cashew Road, and saw quite a number of primary school kids walking alone.
Now, if u were Mas Selamat & u felt cornered or that u have no chance to escape, what are the odds of u getting hold of a hostage (s) to either negotiate a route to escape (like the Black October terrorist group at the 1972 Munich Olympics), or behead the hostage (s) to make a political statement (beheadings of hostages are common acts by Islamist terrorists as well)?
Remember that Islamist terrorists think and act differently from the typical Singaporean. Suicide is and has been a common viable practice.
Frankly, at this point of time, he doesnt have to launch a suicide bombing at Ngee Ann City or Esplanade though. By just taking & killing innocent Singaporean hostages, he would have sent a very strong & chilling political statement across not only to Singapore & Southeast Asia, but also to the entire world. And there would be many repercussions for this.
If he gets caught, he ll probably be jailed for life or even hanged. What are the odds then that he tries to make a final stand?
Singaporeans really need to take a stronger awareness of this issue. And I really hope that he gets captured quickly, or else the primary school children I saw will continue to be far from safe.
