For Lack of a Window Grill, A JI Terrorist was Freed

Who is responsible for Mas Selamat's Escape?
The gentlemen above caused 2 gurkhas plus one ISD junior female staff to basically kiss their careers goodbye because he escaped while on their watch. The commandant of the facility also has to either kena hentak-kaki in his career or possibly he will have to resign to take responsibility as the lack of window grille was what appears to be a command decision.

The Minister of Home Affairs has released his ministerial statement as well as the executive summary of the Committee of Inquiry's report on the findings and recommendation on the escape of Mas Selamat.

His statement basically shares 3 areas that lead to the escape:
[1] The Ventilation Window Was Not Grilled
[2] The Guards Failed in their Duties
[3] Weaknesses in Physical Security

The interesting part of his statement is the section "Establishing Liability, Accountability and Follow-Up Actions". Basically, no-one is criminally liable. However, disciplinary action will be taken and the Minister has in para 66,

...directed Commissioner of Police and Director ISD to investigate the operational lapses related to the escape and ascertain accountabilities, taking into account the findings of the COI and CID reports. Officers who are responsible for Mas Selamat's escape will be disciplined and penalised."

He also asked Director ISD to

"examine the roles not only of the WRDC junior officers but also to go up the chain of command and include the supervisory and management levels of WRDC as well."

It is clear that Director ISD will keep his pension (I am assuming he is an Administrative Service Officer) as para 63 clearly states that Minister Wong has "...full confidence in him and he must carry on." So the buck will stop at WDRC personnel as far as the chain of command goes. That must be comforting for all those at MHA HQ. Only the WDRC people will get tagged with this fiasco.

The Minister for Home Affairs basically also tries to highlight the good work done by ISD and acknowledged the frustration felt by Singaporeans who wrote to him or blogged on the internet. He side-stepped a question put forth by Worker's Party Member of Parliament Mr. Low Thia Khiang on the amount of resources spent. Personally, given the amount of manpower deployed, it is easily in the tens of millions for my own personal guestimate.


How did Mas Selamat Escape?
Basically, he zabo'd whilst going to the toilet and "squeezed" through this window below.


He then scaled a fence, went onto the roof and jumped over the fence where the inner and outer perimeter converged. (Paras 3 to 7) of the report. Basically, the way it was described, it took 49 seconds get from the toilet to the outside of the converged perimeter fences.

Factors contributing to Mas Selamat's escape
The COI basically says (paras 8 to 10) that:
(1) Toilet which Mas Selamat escaped had no grilles
(2) Gurkha guard allowed urinal door to be closed
(3) Perimeter fence design poor as outer and inner perimeter converged with enclosed staircase and walkway
(4) 2 guards and special duty officer (SDO - ISD junior female staff) failed to respond immediately and decisively
(5) SDO failed to check that Mas Selamat had changed into civilian clothes
(6) Two CCTVs covering outer and perimeter fences were not actively monitored

My Reservist Conscript's Take on the Report of the COI
Seriously, the report raises more questions than it tries to answers. Of course, it is better than the virtual news black-out and Minister of Home Affairs' exhorting Singaporeans not to "speculate". But I would like to ask some questions as a reservist who has completed 10 years of reservist plus two tours of duty guarding an installation in Singapore during my reservist stint.

(1) How come the Gurkha Guard inside toilet did not hear or be alerted to Mas climbing out window?
(2) Why did ISD or WRDC assign a female staff to escort a male detainee?
(3) Was WRDC ever audited for physical security by ISD or any independent party e.g. Prisons?
(4) Where were Singaporeans complacent in this escape? - Perhaps Singaporeans should ALL be made to do 20 push-ups for not helping enough to catch Mas Selamat.

So there it is, a report that for those of us cynical male citizens who went through 10 years of reservist liabilities plus 2.5 years of State enforced conscription know would be an exercise in basically stating the obvious and assigning blame to the most junior plus a few levels up.

Possibly the likely most senior casualty would be the Commandant of the facility but realistically the Director ISD's career would be somewhat derailed and unlikely he would make Permanent Secretary with this fiasco trailing in his wake.

Life goes on in Singapore and in a few years time, all will be forgotten in the excitement of Youth Olympics, F1, Integrated Resort and Singapore Inc. powering forward on all cylinders.

Majullah Singapura.

ROD lor.