Is an Incompetent Cabinet What We Have?

As of the writing of this post, it has been no less than 65 days since Mas Selamat made his escape from the Whitney road detention center (WRDC). Most of the attention and writings in the blogosphere and the press to date surround the question of whether DPM Wong Kan Seng should resign from his post. Especially taking center stage has been the manner of the government's accountability and the way PM Lee Hsien Loong exonerated DPM Wong from any fault with regards to Mas Selamat's escape.

While these are certainly important and valid issues to raise, I fear that harping over whether WKS should resign is to risk losing the forest for the trees. Yes, WKS is the minister overseeing the ISD and the WRDC. But demanding his resignation because of the operational lapses at WRDC is a tough act, as WP Opposition leader Low Thia Khiang found out when he was forced into an embarrassing silence by the PM. This is simply because it is difficult to draw a direct link between Wong Kan Seng and the lack of grills on the window that Mas Selamat used to escape.

What, perhaps, is more telling about the competence of the government, and what netizens need to turn their attention to, is the fact that the cabinet ministers are now directly responsible for the recapture of Mas Selamat. There is no doubt about their responsibility for the coordination of National Security and there is no question that they are ultimately responsible for a failure to recapture Mas Selamat.

Mas Selamat has been at large for a lengthy period of time. If Mas Selamat is still in Singapore, then we seriously have to question the competence of our internal security forces for being unable to catch the man in tiny Singapore. If Mas Selamat has escaped our shores, again we have to question the competence of our internal security forces and border defences for letting the man escape.

Here is the low down on the main characters involved:

1. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as the head of the government will bear overall responsibility for the coordination of the various ministries and government bodies responsible for the capture of Mas Selamat. The Prime Minister's Office oversees the National Security Coordination Secretariat (NSCS), tasked with national security planning and the coordination of policy and intelligence issues. A branch of the NSCS, the Joint Counter Terrorism Centre (JCTC), is a multi-agency centre which provides strategic analysis of terrorism-related issues to support policy-making and the development of counter-terrorism capabilities; as well as providing strategic early warning of terrorism-related developments.
2. Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng is the Minister for Home Affairs, and oversees the following government bodies directly related to Mas Selamat's recapture:

• Singapore Police Force (SPF) - The SPF is the main agency tasked with maintaining law and order in the city-state. Part of the SPF is the Special Operations Command (SOC), a frontline unit grouping together various specialist units into a single strategic reserve of the regular forces to be called upon in any contingency and serious case of public disorder. They will no doubt be the frontline involved in the domestic search and recapture of Mas Selamat.
• Internal Security Department (ISD) - The ISD's mission is to confront and address security threats, including international terrorism, foreign subversion and espionage. The ISD also monitors domestic counterterrorism, international counterterrorism, surveillance, apprehension of suspected militants or terrorists and protection of Singapore's national borders.
• Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) - The ICA is in charge of the security of the territory of the nation and goods entering the country as well as foreigners entering the country. Conversely, it will also be in charge of preventing escaped terrorists from passing through the checkpoints under its jurisdiction.

3. Deputy Prime Minister Shunmugam Jayakumar is the Coordinating Minister for National Security. The Co-ordinating Minister chairs an inter-ministerial committee comprising the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister for Home Affairs and the Minister for Defence. His responsibility is to oversee counter-terrorism in Singapore, by co-ordinating the NSCS, mentioned above.
4. Minister of Defence Teo Chee Hean is entrusted with overseeing the defence needs of the Republic of Singapore. The Ministry of Defence oversees the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), of which at least 2 branches are directly involved:

• The SAF Military Police Command is the military police unit of the Singapore Armed Forces, and whose men have been directly involved in the search for Mas Selamat.
• The Singapore Navy will no doubt be tasked with patrolling the shores of Singapore to prevent the escape of Mas Selamat by water.

Conclusions

As you can see, there are direct links between ministerial responsibility and the recapture of Mas Selamat. Netizens, bloggers, MPs and the opposition would do well to focus on these links, rather than to have their attention diverted by the tenuous relationship between the WRDC escape and Wong Kan Seng.

The leadership of Government Singapore is to be truly tested in the coming days.

Let's see how well it holds up.

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Wong Kan Seng Off the Hook? Not So Fast. The Game Has Just Begun!

Wong Kan Seng Off the Hook? Not So Fast. The Game Has Just Begun!

I’m sure we’ve all been reading about the report of the COI and the parliamentary session on the Mas Selamat issue. So far, the latest news is that PM Lee has declared that DPM Wong is “not to blame” for the incident.

Singapore PM says top home ministry officials not responsible for terror escape
The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

SINGAPORE: Singapore's prime minister Tuesday voiced support for the city-state's top Home Ministry officials following a government probe that showed several security lapses allowed a top terror suspect to escape a prison.

Speaking in Parliament, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged that Muslim terror suspect Mas Selamat Kastari's escape from a detention center should never have happened.

"We must admit our mistakes openly and honestly, put them right, and act against those who have been culpable," Lee said.

But Lee said he remained confident in Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng, as well as the top management of Wong's ministry, whom the leader said were not to blame. Wong is also a deputy prime minister.

"I am satisfied that the ministry has taken the correct remedial and disciplinary action, and that the minister and top management were not to blame for what has happened," Lee said.

The Home Ministry oversees the Internal Security Department, which runs the Whitley Road Detention Center where Mas Selamat, like other terror suspects, was being detained without trial.

Well, at least for the time being, it seems that DPM Wong will escape any serious fallout from Mas Selamat’s escape. But it would be jumping the gun to think that this is the end of the story.

AFP has published a news article on this issue, extract below:

Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng told parliament on Monday that security agencies believe Kastari is still in Singapore, the smallest country in Southeast Asia with a population of 4.6 million.

But terrorism expert Clive Williams thinks otherwise, suspecting Kastari is somewhere in the vast archipelago of Indonesia, whose nearest islands are clearly visible from Singapore.

Williams, from the Australian Defence Force Academy, said that for Singapore to maintain Kastari is still in the country only adds to the embarrassment.

"It's been a long time now and I would think that they would've searched every place that he'd likely be in Singapore," Williams told AFP.

"It's not a good reflection on the internal security system, is it?"

He called for an independent review of Singapore's entire terrorism-related security structure.

We are, after all, talking about a manhunt not in the Himalayas, the Arctic icecaps, or the Ural Mountains. We are talking about a manhunt in tiny Singapore. Surely with the amount of manpower and resources deployed to catch the man, you would have thought that we would have caught him by now. Instead, the wily suspected terrorist remains off the radar and has successfully evaded the efforts of the internal security forces and sections of the military to capture him. That one man is capable of such a feat, must be truly embarrassing to the local forces, and the individuals who lead and coordinate them. And don't forget, Wong Kan Seng is the overall man in charge here. Wong will bear ultimate responsibility for a failure to capture Selamat.

And if Mas Selamat has indeed escaped Singapore, then the ICA, the Navy, the police force and other government bodies will have been deemed to have failed in their duties to protect Singapore. And that would be the direct responsibility of DPM Wong, the Minister of Defence, and the Prime Minister himself, whose leadership must surely be questioned (don’t forget, PM Lee was no less than a Brigadier General in the army).

I think Singaporeans should demand a full account of the resources that have been spent to catch Mas Selamat, and inquire as to why the government has yet to capture the JI terrorist. The account should be just as thorough and transparent as the COI report on Mas Selamat's escape.

This issue is just as important, if not more so, than the actual escape from the detention center, for it is in the aftermath of Mas Selamat's escape that the real cost of the mistake is realized. Millions of dollars (if not billions) have been spent, not just on the manpower to catch him, but also the equipment deployed (helicopters etc.). Economic disruption to several businesses that was caused by the massive traffic jams at the causeway also has cost our country millions more. And if Selamat truly makes an escape and manages to engineer a revenge attack on Singapore, the ultimate cost would be quite unimaginable.

The real test of the government's leadership began after Mas Selamat had escaped. And so far, I don't think they've done as well as they should.

The Game Has Only Just Begun!