For the uninitiated, to cut a long story short, the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leader, Mas Selamat bin Kastari, escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre (WRDC) on the 27th of February this year. The Singapore government alleged that he was planning various terrorist acts, ranging from crashing bomb-filled trucks to bombing Singapore Changi Airport. Never formally charged, he was held under Singapore’s Internal Security Act since 2006. (A longer account is found here.)

Just watching the 9.30 p.m. news last night on Channel News Asia raised some questions about the explanation giving by the minister.

Firstly, the minister said that complacency and “slackening” caused the “silly” mistakes. But honestly, issues such as a lack of grilles on windows, no CCTV cameras in operation, guards letting the detainee out of sight is disturbingly reminiscent of something out of a Cowboy and Indian flick. I’m neither claiming that a James-Bond-esque escape is more acceptable, nor that such human errors are impossible. But surely, in a country where “security lapses are virtually unheard of” (or so a report by IHT says), a detention centre where terrorists are held, should not allow such incredible lapses in security. The security measures and simulations that are in place evidently never expected a detainee to climb out of the window, so I do wonder what they had prepared for. Perhaps armed resistance or an attack on a gurka?

Mr. Wong says that such lapses will not happen again, and I’m sure that any parent of a SCGS girl would want to believe that. But must we wait for such an incident to happen again for us to beef up security? It is alarming to think that we need such a wake-up call in order to be shaken out of our complacency. I shudder to think of other “wake-up” calls that may take place in the future.

Secondly, in response to Mr. Low Thia Kiang’s question about audits, Mr. Wong said that there will be a “regular system check and audit” now. Also, external auditors will be brought in. If charities are required to have external auditors in, why hadn’t WRDC and other security areas also implemented this measure too? Surely that is of greater and more immediate importance?

Thirdly, Mr. Wong refused to take any responsibility for the agency under the care of the Ministry of Home Affairs, of which he is in charge of. I am not saying that “all the Home Team departments are complacent”, but it seems that only the Director of the ISD is taking responsibility for the breach in security. All well and good, but what about the Ministry itself? Not taking responsibility for Mas Selamat’s escape implies that the MInistry was not responsible for the mistake made by the ISD, and in essence, not for the ISD which seems to me that they are admitting some form of complacency even though it is not stated explicitly.

In any other country, there would be calls for his resignation. Donald Rumsfeld resigned because of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, The Army Times saying that it “amount(ed) to professional negligence”.  While I am not calling for Wong Kan Seng’s resignation, is it too much to ask for him to accept some responsibility for this?

Many citizens probably wouldn’t mind having the high security that each minister has at his house now. I know I wouldn’t…