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THREE questions were uppermost in people's minds when terror operative Mas Selamat Kastari escaped seven weeks ago. How did he manage to get out of a well-guarded facility? Was it an inside job? Did he have outside assistance? These posers went to the heart of national security issues: the stoutness of operational systems in camps holding high-security risks and the possibility of more terrorist cells and loose sympathiser networks operating undetected. Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng's report to Parliament yesterday of the investigating panel's findings was reassuring in some parts, troubling in others. On whether the escape was a conspiracy, the committee of inquiry headed by a retired High Court judge was satisfied the detainee had no assistance from within the camp or from outside collaborators who might be thought to have helped in the planning. But it hedged in its assessment of whether available evidence showed he had help after he made good his escape from the Whitley detention centre. This is a crucial detail. If he did receive shelter, the implications would be serious, aside from indicating to the security agencies whether he has slipped out of Singapore. They believe he is still in hiding here.
But it was Mr Wong's account of the operational lapses making possible the escape that took some beating. He described these as 'so simple as to appear silly and incredible'. That still answered only part of the first question above. The guards' sins of omission when assigned to escort Mas Selamat that day were patently elementary. But an absence of camera surveillance in that part of the camp meant that the investigators could not determine how he had made the last dash to freedom. There was a distance of 20m that separated the toilet block, through which unsecured window he had sneaked out, and the perimeter fence. Could Mas Selamat have known the camera system was being upgraded at the time and not switched on? How did he get out of the camp unnoticed by any guard, anyway? The cameras' downtime compounded a shocking tale of the camp personnel's ineptness in not showing situational awareness, still less following standard procedures drilled into them.
Mr Wong detailed remedial and prevention steps that would be taken in security detentions from now. To Singaporeans, a systems overhaul is a given. They will expect the accountability question to be addressed, too. But they will not want the national security establishment to be demoralised by the embarrassing incident to such a degree that it gets paralysed. The security apparatus must come out of this humbled but punching fit, assuming nothing. But it has to draw the right lessons.
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