JI Fugitive Manhunt

Title of Article: Fugitive hunt widens
Author: Bertha Henson
Publisher: Straits Times
Date: 29/2/08

It's certainly a surprise, welcome or not, when Singapore's security, which is so vaunted and well-known, finally fails. After all, a system, no matter how good, has to have lapses. Apparently the head of Singapore's JI cell has escaped, and has been successfully evading the police ever since. There has not been sight nor sound of him since he made good his escape. Of course, the army has thrown themselves into the search, not sparing any effort as they noisily crash around, hoping to chance upon our fugitive.

I honestly think that this is a good wake up call for us. As far as we know, we have been able to halt any serious threat to the Singaporean population. However, right now, we have a certain fugitive on the loose who has known to be involved in some very unsavoury activities. It certainly places a blow to our confidence. Maybe not large, or even medium-sized, but there nonetheless.

I think the purpose of this article is to reassure the public that the situation is all under control. As I'm not in any position to know better, I have to accept that this article is true. There are also plenty of assumptions made about the competency of the Singapore Armed Forces. Sure, there have been many manhunts made, but none of this scale, and probably none after such slick prey as our fugitive.

So this would be a good test for us. Is the army actually all we make it out to be? Are we truly as competent as our advertisements on TV and on many billboards say? Or will we fail at this test? Certainly, I really hope that we do not fail. However, I would like to see that we indeed learn from this mistake, as the authorities keep on promising.

The government also tells us to stay calm, and that they have indeed shut off places where our fugitive can escape the country. They also seem to be confident. But, their actions show that this may not be true. We have requested our neighbouring countries to stay alert, and to watch their own borders. This, of course, could also be due to cautiousness. Or, it could be that we do suspect that he has since left the country. After all, this is a serious security lapse, and we do need to keep our neighbours in the loop.

Of course, looking back on this article, right now so many days after the escape of the fugitive, one cannot help but see how our confidence that we will nab the fugitive is lessening. We are even desperate enough to release information on what clothes and shoes the fugitive is wearing. We have searched high and low for almost a week now, and there is still neither sight nor sound of him. At least not any that have been released to the media.

In conclusion, we have suffered one of the most serious security lapses in quite a few years, and there better be steps taken to ensure that this does not happen again. I wonder how all the MNCs would react to Singapore being a hotbed for JI activity?