The strange case of Mas Selamat Kastari
More than a month has passed, and there’s been no news of Mas Selamat Kastari, the fugitive-at-large. His face is still plastered all over walls. Then again, there are fewer articles about him in the press: a little update about the search, as well as some commentaries every now and then.
Yet conspiracy theories are flying about in the private sphere. How on earth did he get out of the detention centre? I personally accept his ability to get of the toilet, particularly if they were not barred, but how did he cross over the fence? It’s supposed to be a highly-secured compound! How can it be as easy as scaling a school fence just to get over to the other side to play soccer?
The most common speculation I hear today is that he died in prison. For some reason or another. So the whole escape fiasco is a cover-up to avoid any charges of human rights from the citizens and the international community.
Coincidence?
+ Mas Selamat escapes just before his family is about to visit him at the detention centre.
+ The authorities seem to be on inertia mode – the news of his breakout takes a damn long time to get out of the detention centre.
+ A few weeks later, this woman comes up to say that she thought she saw Mas Selamat Kastari hanging out around the Thomson Road area ‘looking dazed, a little lost’. Why wasn’t it reported earlier? We’ve all been fed huge doses of Mas Selamat until he’s become part of our lives like some instant celebrity.
The authorities haven’t stepped forward to speak much. Every day it’s search here, search there, ‘I think Mas Selamat is still in Singapore.’ … ‘There is a reason to believe that Mas Selamat is still in Singapore’. I sincerely applaud Wong Kan Seng for apologising in Parliament. But we need more accountability. Not ‘uh-oh, something’s gone wrong’ and everybody who’s connected to the case become instant ostriches. The whole of Singapore – in fact the whole world – needs an explanation how a fish that had been so difficult to catch can be lost once again. And Singapore is supposed to be this tough cookie that criminals ought to fear. MM Lee sums it up in a way we should also applaud: COMPLACENCY. I’m sorry but this description ought to extend to our bureaucracy with a spew of recent insensitive and arrogant policies that demonstrate a lack of empathy for the public who are at the receiving end of these policies.
If this case is ever unsolved, it ought to be featured on an episode of ‘World’s Greatest Mysteries’. Whitley Road thus becomes the Bermuda Triangle of Singapore – sudden disappearance without a trace, without reason. Unsolved.
