Professional and competent

I always have high regard for our security people. And I said that not without any justification. The last 40 years of security and a sense of being in a safe country speak for this belief. And many Singaporeans can swear by this too. But with the Mas Selamat case, it puts everyone in doubt. The Chinese has a phrase called 'mao dun.' This is best exemplified when my kopitiam talk cock friends pointed out all the glaring shortfalls that a boy scout could do better. The escape was due to a confluence of factors, factors that are too elementary, that should not have been there in a highly professional and competent organisation. Grunt has pointed out many shortcomings and confusing facts above that I don't wish to elaborate or to repeat. If Mas Selamat escaped through a well thought out plan, with the assistance of a gang of helpers, that would be a different issue. What had happened, when a highly dangerous prisoner could practically walked out of a high security centre, must have baffled many people. What does the simplicity of the escape says? It is this simplicity that is shocking and unforgiveable, if I have to put it bluntly. The security personnel and system were not challenged a little bit. They actually facilitated the escape. The more I look at the facts presented, the more ridiculous the escape becomes. And my kopitiam friends asked, 'Can you call that professional and competent?' I have nothing else to say.

Misinformation on Tibet

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and a leading German expert have voiced their concern over many westerners' misconceptions regarding China, and some Western media's biased and misleading coverage of the recent events in Tibet. "We see China in a totally false way, " Schmidt said in a recent interview with German newspaper Westdeutschland Zeitung. The former chancellor's remarks came as major German television channels and newspapers adopted an anti-China tone, even with false pictures and deliberate selection of video grabs. Western hostility towards China is largely rooted in the strong perception of many westerners that China should develop according to the "democratic mode" represented by the United States or Western European countries, said Schmidt. "Why should it have to?" he asked. Schmidt, who has visited China 15 times, said many westerners have no idea about China's history and culture, or the complicated political and social issues that the country is dealing with, including Tibet. China is the world's "historic experiment" and "it has to go its own way," he said. "I do not say this," he added, "to defend the current Chinese communist leaders or to make the political situation (there) look better." "There is no judgment in what I have said so far," said Schmidt. Eberhard Sandschneider, director of the Research Institute of the German Council on Foreign Relations, said many westerners' fear of China is largely attributed to their uncertainty about what effect the country's rapid development may have on the Western world. "I firmly believe it makes no sense to have fears about China," said Sandschneider, one of the most prominent China experts in Germany. China does have social, economic and environmental issues, some of them deeply challenging, he said. Germany and other nations should stop their interference in China's affairs as long as what China does is "legitimate," Sandschneider said on an online chatroom of Germany's ARD TV. "It is too cheap at this point to only criticize China instead of raising questions about ourselves, something we must do to deal with global challenges," he said. Referring to a potential boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games, Sandschneider said it makes more sense in the long term to engage with China, including on the Olympics, rather than reacting emotionally to what happened in Tibet, which has long been a part of China. Adrian Geiges, a correspondent for the German weekly Stern, said in a recently published story entitled "Dalai Lama is no innocent angel" that he was "outraged" by the one-sided perception of many Westerners regarding Tibet. What happened in Tibet, including arson and assaults on innocent civilians, was "racial violence," which can by no means be justified, said Geiges, who was among the few foreign journalists in Tibet during the violent unrest in March. "However, many westerners are under the impression that the Chinese attacked the Tibetans," he said. "Where does this misunderstanding come from?" One of the reasons, Geiges said, is the idealization of the Dalai Lama and Tibetans, who many westerners believe are innocent and non-violent and should receive sympathy for the alleged human rights violations. However, the violent and deadly attacks on civilians by the rioters have instead "violated the human rights of the Han Chinese," said Geiges. Moreover, Tibet was no paradise under the rule of the Dalai Lama, the German journalist pointed out. About 95 percent of the Tibetans under the rule of the Dalai Lama were serfs who were not even allowed to learn to read or write, he said. The Dalai Lama, who has been traveling around the world since going into exile in 1959, has managed to convince many westerners that the Chinese government was responsible for the so-called "cultural genocide" in Tibet, which did not happen. In this sense, "the Dalai Lama is no innocent angel but a successful diplomat," Geiges said. The deliberate distortion of the recent unrest in Tibet by Western media has raised grave concerns abut professional ethics as well as its potential political and social repercussions across the world. The Chinese public is venting its spleen online over some Western media groups' inaccurate reports about the Tibet riots. Various inaccurate photos from Western media claiming to portray the Lhasa riots of March 14 have been collected and uploaded onto the Internet by some Chinese overseas students. The collection comprises dozens of pictures and footage broadcast by well-known Western media outlets, with netizens highlighting the misleading captions accompanying the images. The Germany-based RTL TV and N-TV have made corrections on their websites on March 23 and 24 respectively, and also apologized to the public. The Washington Post published an editor's note on March 24, saying the caption for an earlier version of a slideshow on the Tibet riot was incorrectly associated with a photo from Nepal where Nepalese uniformed police were dispelling Tibetans. The caption on the new version was corrected. On www.anti-cnn.com, netizens continue to pressure Western media, including CNN and BBC, to apologize to their Chinese audience. (What I want to add is that many of these western countries in Europe were accomplices to the semi colonisation of China during the Ching Dynasty. They looted, raided and took advantage of China and exploited all they could with no sense of guilt. And what had China done to any of them? Nothing. China was their victim for more than a century.)

The apple is rotting

The big juicy red apple was too good to believe. People have this uncanny feeling that something is wrong but could not place where exactly has gone wrong. In the meantime the apple keeps rotting from the inside. Finally we are seeing an open sore. The worms are crawling out and it is looking very ugly. In the days of Goh Keng Swee or Howe Yoon Chong, or Pang Tee Pow, they would be screaming their heads off and many heads would be chopped, butts kicked. Compare to the scene today, all so cool. Complacency or silly, we looked very amateurish. One thing for sure, no one will engage us as their consultants on security matters. We have lost all credibility in this field.

A very uncomfortable moment in Parliament

The spot light was on Kan Seng. He spoke in all seriousness, telling a very difficult story to a Parliament that was shocked by the truth. The mouths were gapping widely in disbelief. It must be a very uncomfortable time for Kan Seng to tell a clumsy truth that he himself said, was simple, silly and incredible. There was nearly a full house in Parliament. Practically the whole cabinet was there, including the MM, SM and PM. It was serious business. There was no time for funny questions. But funny question there was when Low Thia Khiang asked Kan Seng if the rumour that Mas Kastari was already dead while the escape story was a diversion. Kan Seng simply asked him if he believed in the story. And that ended the questioning. How could such a question be raised? What are the implications of the question? No joking matter really. Imagine what would it be like if the story is true. It would mean that the whole escape was a hoax! How could the govt stand on its feet with such a big hoax? Thus, the question shouldn't be asked at all. That was the only news clip of a funny question, and I presume there were none after that. Even asking a simple question under such circumstances requires a lot of courage. They better be relevant to the issue.

The Escape - An official version

Kan Seng called it a simple, silly and incredible truth. I was stunned by the simplicity of it all. If I know it is like that, I would rather let it be kept underwrap from the public. Honestly, I struggle to accept this truth. And I think every Singaporean will be bewilder by the revelation. One thing for sure, there was no attempt to window dress the facts. Otherwise all the gapping holes will be patched. It was a clumsy truth. That makes it more genuine and painful. The truth does not need to be elegant and watertight. Only in a movie or a novel will the truth be cleverly scripted. As they said, truth is more fictional than fiction. So Singaporeans will be left to wonder about this truth, to live with it or have their nightmares pondering over it. It will be the topic in everyone's lip for a long time to come. You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!