24 February 2009

The great hunt: One year on

One year ago, alleged Jemaah Islamiyah mastermind Mas Selamat Kastari escaped from detention without trial. He has not been recaptured. The Home Minister says the government has "no credible information" as to his whereabouts. Full essay.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, now the PM wants to engage with the New Media in the next GE. Let's see what type of cyber bomb will explode from it. Control, control & control.

As for Mas Selamat, I wonder whether guards at the detention center failed to notice that his wife may have communicated clearly with her husband thru her regular visits. The form of communication is called body language, recalled reading somewhere in earlier press before his capture in Indonesia that his wife knew how to interpret and anticipate his expectations & actions. They probably as a pair honed it to a fine art thru facial expressions, raising palm forward or backwards, moving fingers etc. Probably the escape plans were gradually finalized thru those numerous regular visitations. Never underestimate a woman dressed in a tudung ever!

Anonymous said...

YB, your conclusion is rich with irony - what do you mean the media and the government no longer have the last word?

Problem is, they do. By having control of the first word, they will always have a measure of the last. There are plenty of very popular local blogs out there whose entire existence is based on gainsaying everything the mainstream media is saying. (Admirably, this blogger has been doing this for years: http://mollymeek.livejournal.com/.)

People need to find their own talking points, rather than pounce on every last thing the mainstream media says. Sure, I'm about as impressed with the ST as the next person who hasn't been involved in an ST poll. But automatic gainsaying, to quote Monty Python, is just contradiction.

fish 'n' chips said...

"One year ago, on 27 March 2008, Mas Selamat Kastari escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre where he had been detained without trial for being an alleged terrorist. Soon after his escape, a bomb exploded."

BTW Alex, he escaped on 27 February 2008.

You question:
What has happened in the year since Mas Selamat Kastari escaped from detention without trial?

My answer:
Mas Selamat Kastari escaped from detention without TRAIL.

Yawning Bread Sampler said...

To fish 'n' chips - oops. I don't know what I was smoking when I made that silly mistake. Thanks for pointing it out. Now corrected.

Anonymous said...

On 27 February 2009, Mas Selamat will have left Whitney Detention Centre for one year.

Today's Straits Times' headline boldly proclaims "Freed terror detainees fit well in society".

So really, Mas Selamat must have fitted well into our society, in which case, we have nothing to worry.

Well done Singapore!

(By Blind Mouse)

Anonymous said...

'Whether Mas Selamat is in Singapore or has fled the country, we will hunt him down as we did before'

That is giving themselves too much credit. It was the Indonesians who caught him, not them. So what did he mean when he said 'as we did before'? Did they nap him in the first place?

Anonymous said...

IMHO, the President's appointment was all a farce. In the internet forums, apparently there is good reason for referring him as the Prataman.

To me, there is no real use for such appointment other than for the sole reason that he can be used as a tool by the ruling PAP party in case some other opposition party is in power.

The question I would like to raise is are we Singaporeans paying a heavy price for something of such low value in return. Something that I would not envisage PAP to be ever involved if they have not done their crafty calculations.

Anonymous said...

8 PAP-related folks I would sure like to see out of the taxpayers and GLC's payroll:
1. LKY, he has outlasted his useful political years
2. Nathan, pay million$ for this yes-man 2nd key
3. WSK, missing terrorist still not his ministry's fault?
4. LHL, for his multiple disappearing acts, re: theonlinecitizen
5. Ho Ching, billion$ losses
6. Wee, father of Wee Shu Min
7. Liu, MICA and yet don't understand the way internet works?
8. Charles Chong, this higher mortal is not of use for us lesser mortals

The other GRC tailcoat riders are also not welcomed. But wonder if I'd get to vote at all should election comes.

Anonymous said...

Minor edit to my earlier comment about taking LKY off taxpayers & GLCs' payroll. A more precise reason would be that from his speeches and commentary shows he is no longer relevant in the current Singapore and world.

Yawning Bread Sampler said...

The comments are going off topic. I would ask that they stay on topic.

Anonymous said...

is this the kind of answer we expect from 1st world minister who is paid world class salary? if it is, i would think that anyone would gladly take his job for 10% of his pay anytime.