It is week 1 of the Mas Selamat Kastari escape and the dragnet has been flung far and wide. Media reports are fast and furious with its usual “nation building” headlines. The conspiracy theories, accusations and calls for blood have also been equally fast and furious.
The numerous conspiracy theories I’ve read tickle me at first, but trouble me as well. Some of the stuff being bandied around include:
: That Mas Selamat was tortured and murdered in prison; the escape was merely a well-orchestrated media hoopla event to cover up the incident.
: That heads must roll, including the head of the DPM and Home Minister Wong Kan Seng.
: That the lack of official word from the Police and ISD suggests a blackout and coverup.
: That a limping man could not have possibly escaped a high-security prison, therefore there must have been help.
: That Mas Selamat has ceased being useful as he was uncooperative during interrogation; instead of releasing him, ISD engineered this show to “dispose” of him.
: Prank calls, bomb hoaxes, “sabo-ing” your neighbour just cuz you didn’t like the smell, and the like.
Some of the above are in my mind truly creative. Personally, the #1 concern for me is to capture him while he’s still in Singapore. Everything else can wait including the calls for heads to roll and blood to be spilt. Let’s get him first, then worry about the rest?
I hate to draw a parallel with Hollywood, but those who watched Prison Break the drama serial, would know that when Michael Scofield engineered the daring prison break with a few other inmates, the first and most important task was to find and arrest the escapees. It was only much later that the “collateral damage” was assessed and the prison warden Pope and the prison doctor Sara were blamed and sacked.
If you’re dumb enough to make prank calls or waste the Police’s time with your own petty agendas, you’re a bloody idiot. If you’re truly stupid to make bomb hoaxes, rest assured the full extent of the law will be thrown at you and you’d have deserved it.
Frankly, if I were ISD and wanted to get rid of Kastari, I would have done it quietly and none would be the wiser; if it needed to be known I would have just passed it off as “suicide” or “sickness”. Come on man, before this incident did we even know of this man’s existence or that he was arrested by the ISD for being the JI chief? Many of us don’t even register the faces and names of the arrested JI members. Do the ISD really need to put on this show if they needed to be rid of him?
Do we really truly want Singapore to fall or for Singaporeans to get blown up by terrorist bombs? I suspect there will be certain people amongst us who wish Singapore ill and we must be level-headed enough to see that and not fall for such traps. As much as we spew vitriol and hatred about PAP policies and the like, I struggle to believe there would be true-blue Singaporeans who are glad Mas Kastari escaped and could potentially cause us harm.
Beware the instigators…
