ContemporaryCaliph.Com

It has been more than 4 days since the disappearance of Singapore’s most wanted fugitive, Mas Selamat from the ISD custody.  His photos can be found literally almost in every part of the island and security has been stepped up along the borders. It is quite disappointing that he is still at-large and insofar no reliable information that may help the authority to find him.

Perhaps, for the first time in national history that incident like this is causing massive outrages amongst fellow Singaporeans.  From online blogs and forums, people are complaining about the saga and demanding more explanation from the authority. The assurance given by Dr Rohan Gunaratna during a CNA interview didn’t help much to silence the public. He was saying that incident like this are bound to happen everywhere, even in countries like US and UK security lapses did occurred. However, I believe that it is not justifiable to say that this incident needs to be tolerated.  It is outrageous that this incident did happen in such manner.  Nevertheless, lessons that can be learnt from such incident include the need to be on guard all the time and stay vigilant.  

A lot of people are blaming the authority for such failure, with some even posted online comments of demanding the resignation of DPM Wong. I wonder how, his resignation will helps to solve this security problem? Some people are just taking advantage to attack the government politically amid this crisis. At the same time, the too much reliance of government for every facet of life in Singapore is turning this nation into an unhealthy nanny state. Political activists have been lobbying for a greater civil society presence in this republic, yet have reached the stage where our society is politically matured? Just witness some MPS in several PAP housing estates, the residents expect too much from their MPs and think that MPs can solve the underlying problems, which some are created by them? Aristotle mentioned that man is by nature a political animal, however in Singapore context, Singaporeans are by nurture, economic species.

Coming back to the Mas Selamat saga, it is quite disturbing also to see some public figures that may be seen as trying to gain some public spotlight by officially showing they are ‘helping’ the authority to look for Mas Selamat via distributing notices to people. While this effort should be commendable, the way some public figure(s) (who’s known to many for regularly stealing the spotlight) is seen busy giving speeches and talking to the media highlighting his effort in galvanising volunteers to help in this massive manhunt.  I am in no position to make any judgement on his ‘effort’, but somehow analytically you can’t escape from hypothetically not think otherwise. However, who knows if they are sincere about it? Then perhaps its good, Wallahu’alam.

In retrospect, it is also quite worrying that some people tend to ‘sympathise’ with the JI’s fugitive and questioning the truth behind everything, albeit indirectly. Again, I am in no position to give any definite answer. However these sympathisers are quite disturbing. Despite numerous efforts from several agencies, including the mainstream Asatizah and the RRG team, there are still people who are not convinced and downplay the terrorist threat in this republic. Perhaps more need to be done to ensure that Muslim community especially are united in our War Against Terrorism – not because it’s an American-led but because the notion of Islam itself that rejects terrorism, tyranny, oppressions and injustices.