For the guards on duty on the fateful day of Mas Selamat's Houdini-like escape, it must have been a hellish month-and-a-half. Haunted by recurring thoughts of how they could have let the wanted terrorist slip through the window, it would be hard for them to flip through this morning’s papers.Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng’s speech yesterday on Mas Selamat’s escape was effectively their death sentence. Towards the end of the speech, DPM Wong promised that “Officers who are responsible for Mas Selamat’s escape will be disciplined and penalised.”
Furthermore, he added that not only should the Whitley Road Detention Centre (WRDC) junior officers be examined, but the scrutiny should “go up the chain of command and include the supervisory and management levels of WRDC as well.”
While the personnel at WRDC should rightly be responsible for the escape, it seemed that they have been accorded all the blame, and would suffer all the disciplinary actions as well.
Opposition MP Chiam See Tong has asked in parliament whether any heads will roll, but it seems like the only people facing the guillotine are the staff and Officers at the WRDC. For some of them, it is possibly hanta kaki to their promotion and job prospects in the force.
Who is really to blame?
DPM Wong has been irresponsible to absolve himself of the blame. He seems eager to point the finger on “slacking” within some individual units, all the while dismissing the notion that strategic oversights have led to the escape.
Why, for instance, is an extremely dangerous and wanted terrorist kept in an old facility formally used to house communists? The rationale for housing Mas Selamat there is so not to antagonise him and “treat” him better so that he would be more willing to divulge information on terrorist activities. However, these functions could be performed just as well in a better-secured facility.
Another reason cited by DPM Wong was to prevent “contamination” of the terrorist with other inmates. This argument, however, raises more questions: why couldn’t a section of the prison be condoned off for Mas Selamat? Why is it that the Internal Security Department (ISD) needs a rude awakening to decide that they are going to house terrorists in Changi Prison?
The security at the WRDC was appalling. As DPM Wong has mentioned, metal grilles were not installed at that one window and the CCTV that would have documented his escape were not actively monitered. Furthermore, the perimeter wall and fencing resembled more of a school’s than that of a secure facility used to house terrorists.
Rather than pushing the blame squarely on the complacency of the personnel at WRDC, strategic oversights on the part of the ISD and even the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) should bare the responsibility as well.
DPM Wong should have accepted responsibility
Now that Mas Selamat has escaped, what’s done is done, and there is no use mourning over past incompetency. While DPM Wong was right to say that the focus should now be to catch the terrorist, he was insincere in the way he handled the whole situation.
Responsibility does not mean accepting punishment, but it means telling that people that yes, there is sincere regret that this incident has happened, and yes, the Ministry has contemplated the fact that maybe there is something that they themselves have overlooked. It seemed that DPM Wong was unwilling to concede all this while.
Some members of the online community are calling for his resignation, but that is wholly unnecessary. However, as the Minister in charge of Home Affairs, it is only right that he accepts responsibility for the whole incident, take the burdens upon his shoulders, and try to undo the mess.
The whole Mas Selamat incident is an indication of how distant the ruling technocrats are from the ground. It is a failed Public Relations exercise on the government’s part. By not accepting responsibility, the MHA has proven that it is more than willing to appoint scapegoats in this fracas, and wash their own hands clean.
Unfortunately, the people who suffer will always be the ones at the bottom of the food chain.
