The Pope's Speech

Pope Francis famously made the point that he'd punch a person who insults his mother. This is a very human and natural reaction. But it is not clear that this is an equal response - one that fits the "crime". The Muslim terrorists who killed the 12 staff of Charlie Hebdo and shot two police officers - one, a fellow Muslim brother, at point blank, certainly did not do so because their mothers had been insulted, but their Prophet. It was a heinous assassination, one that, sadly, many Muslims around the world applaud, whether quietly, or quite publicly. And that's the problem. While certain Muslim leaders stand up to condemn the action, many unknown more raise their figurative glasses (guns if they had one) in utter approval and satisfaction that their Prophet's name and honour have been defended so emphatically.

Pope Francis was making the point that we must be careful what we say or otherwise face the consequence. Unfortunately, some will read that as justification for the assassinations, and can expect more in future. As some have observed, that was not Pope Francis' finest impromptu "speech". After all, wasn't it Jesus who taught to turn the other cheek, to forgive our enemies? The King James Bible puts this very eloquently::

But I (Jesus) say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you...

God can take care of his own honour.

A person once remarked that Islam is a vicious religion. Whether we agree with that or not is obviously our personal view. But I think, in the light of the Charlie Hebdo killings and the aftermath, that many are silently agreeing with this assessment. Silently because otherwise, these innocent people will be next on the target list. The terrorists will not allow their Prophet to be talked about negatively. But they cannot prevent people to think so silently.

Je suis Charlie

It happened almost half a world away, but on reflection, could have happened in my own backyard. The tentacles of Islamic extremism knows no bounds. It purportedly crusades in the name of Allah, but kills Allah's believers nevertheless. They may refer to this as collateral damage. How flippant. It has been more than 13 years since 911, two wars and countless terrorism acts, yet Islamist jihadists remain uncowed and unbeaten. This doesn't mean that its cause is right and sacred. It does mean that this world remains a dangerous place and Islam can never regain its glory days, not with so much hatred in its midst. Change can only come from within, but there has not been any action except the obligatory verbal condemnation. More needs to be done. Over to you.

Fighting fire

I spoke to a few teenagers the other day about Sam Bacile's "Innocence of Muslims" and the widespead violent response to it. Imagine my surprise when they asked me what it was all about. With this news hogging headlines in every print and internet publication, it was incredible these youth of the internet generation were not all that aware of what was going on. I can understand it if they didn't know about the Chinese and Japanese tussling over an island somewhere between China and Japan. It is between 2 close neighbours who have had a long history of conflict. This latest demonstration over a amateur movie has been widely publicized and correspondingly vilified by adherents to the Islamic faith. Google has reportedly blocked the video to countries such as Libya, Egypt, Indonesia and Malaysia - countries with large numbers of Muslims. Although Muslims in Singapore do not form the majority, the government has also asked for it to be blocked and Google has reportedly obliged. Or has it?

There are now many versions of the movie. So much so that the movie, in part or in whole, is still accessible in Singapore. This goes to show that it is very hard to censor anything on the internet. Even countries which block access to Facebook, like China, fight a losing battle. It is relatively easy to bypass the restrictions with counter technologies. That's why I think that the best way to fight fire is with fire. This is what some Muslims have done, by putting up videos that counter the message of the "Innocence of Muslims". In my opinion, this is a far more rational and effective way of responding to something you don't agree with and not by staging violent and deadly demonstrations all over the world. These demonstrations only serve to prove that Islam is a certain type of religion, justifying the very accusations made of it.

But the mob is often unreasonable and, frankly, ignorant. Ask how many of those demonstrating have actually seen the movie and I will wager that not one of them has seen it. They may have heard about it, perhaps from many quarters. It is typical of people to exaggerate as they denigrate others. It works both ways. Sadly the net result is the death of Muslims rather than a real chastisement of the perpetrators of the video in question.

Unkindest Cut

When all is said and done, nobody, except perhaps the radicals (and I don't mean the Muslims), would disagree that Mas Selamat Kastari's (MSK) relative - his brother, sis-in-law and niece, deserve to go to jail.

Whatever is said, that perhaps sympathy and blood ties are too strong for the niece not be have done anything to help MS, she is guilty as charged. Certainly she wouldn't have wanted to turn MSK in, but to disguise a known fugitive for his escape? There is certainly more than it being a lapse of judgement. There is deliberate will and action to condone the actions of MSK (he escaped from a state prison) and sympathise with his cause. What does that make her if not a closet terrorists cut from the same clothe as MSK?

I wonder how many are still out there in Singapore, going around like normal people, perhaps even teaching in some government school in Singapore, but deep down, are just waiting for the opportunity to disrupt innocent people's lives, all in the name of religion.

Riddle me, Batman

Revelation of how close relatives of Mas Selamat Kastari (MSK) helped him eventually to escape to Malaysia 2 years ago certainly raised more questions that it answered. The authorities are not willing to reveal more at this moment as to how MSK walked all the way, in bright orange prison garb, from Whitely Road to Tampines Housing Estate in the eastern end of the island, amidst the island-wide alert of his escape. It's surreal. Certainly great material for several Prison Break episodes.

What is on everyone's mine is: why our normally efficient and effective police never thought to search and monitor MSK's close relatives? Given MSK's apparent familiarity with where exactly his brother stays, one cannot but speculate that he has been in contact with these relatives until recently (i.e. during prison visits perhaps) before his escape. How else do you explain the quickness and purpose that MSK headed for this relative's house half way across Singapore island? How would he know who would be home and who would be away, as news reports, citing the account given by the authorities, would have us believe? I hardly visit some of my relatives, perhaps once a year, and then only during Chinese New Year. Truth be told, I don't exactly know where they live, and when they will be at home. It's normal practice to call ahead so we don't end up facing an empty house. MS must have powers of telepathy beyond us mortals, if we are to believe what we have read so far.

I am not calling anyone a liar. I am sure that some things need to be kept confidential, but so far, what has been revealed has tended to insult my intelligence. Or maybe I am not that intelligent. But I leave that to the more intelligent people (authorities?) among us.

Youth on the Balance

I was reminded today that if you do not want your personal details to be known, then don't put any of it online, on the internet, to be specific. The internet media has a long long memory. You can delete the pages where you posted these info, you can delete your account, but whatever you do, those pages, if they were once openly available on the internet, will always remain there in some cached pages (such as those that Google maintains) - perhaps till kingdom come or the internet is destroyed, whichever happens first. Even Google's demise, should it happen, would not erase those information. So also if you want to post a comment that can be viewed as a threat, especially one of bodily harm to someone living no more than 41 km away (that's the diagonal size of Singapore island). Then you had better be ready to defend yourself. In particular, I am referring to a Singaporean who did just that on his Facebook page - threaten to kill the Sports Minister of Singapore.

He was arrested and questioned, as anyone who has threatened murder should be, and subsequently released on bail. I agree with many who wrote on the incident, that if he hasn't done anything wrong, he should not be afraid. And he displayed this fearlessness by subsequently claiming, on the internet again, that whatever he said wasn't literal. One can argue till the cows come home if his tirade on his Facebook page is a piece of literary art form or a bald threat by a would-be terrorist. That he goes by a Malay name doesn't help. He should have known better, or is he fronting for someone in the shadows? For all that we say about freedom of speech, if this person boarded a subway train, I will not follow him into that same train. Call me a coward, or accuse me of being paranoid, but you can never know, until it is too late. I am not going to put my life on the line for some vague freedom of speech thing, which some claim they will die defending even if they don't agree with what was said. Hogwash. That is the idealism of youth and the folly of the aged - probably a fallacious belief if ever there was one.

It is so easy to criticize someone or something. Sure mistakes were made in the YOG. Everyone could see it, and not a few poured scorn on the organisers. It was very publicly visible, and embarrassing for a Singapore that prides itself on being efficient, and always planning to the last detail. Perhaps our Kiasu spirit showed up and the MOE soaked up as many tickets as it could so that it could send in the 'army' if and when necessary, to fill the stands.- so some tell me. But what is important is that corrective action was taken, it was effective, just like what our young footballing cubs did to secure the bronze medal after a disastrous outing with the Haiti Football Team.  

So was it worth it? Only time will tell. I asked a youth today if he had volunteered to help out in the YOG. He said 'Yes', and I asked what he got out of it all. He was positive about the experience, especially with the opportunity to mix around and converse with so many different peoples of the world. Somehow I was happy for him but felt a tinge of sadness that I could not go back in time to experience what he has for the past week or so. For our young, who are our future and to learn to co-exist with others - this alone makes it worth it.

Religious fear

Someone reputable made the observation that a Google search on the word "Christianity" will throw up results such as "Is Christianity Absurd?" and "Christianity is Stupid" on the first page of the search results. On the other hand, when 'Islam' is searched, no such negative search results are returned. He speculated that Google might be filtering the results in the fear of offending Muslims.

The sad thing is that everyone is afraid of offending Muslims and Islam. In Singapore, for example, McDonalds' ongoing promotion campaign has replaced the pig in the Chinese Zodiac with an angel (Cupid) for fear of offending Muslims. Muslims consider pigs as unclean and forbids its consumption. Another potentially fatal example is the firebombing of churches in Malaysia - all because the Malaysia High Court ruled that religions other than Islam (i.e. Christianity) have the rights to use the word 'Allah' to refer to God. This is Malaysian Law. Apparently, Muslims in Malaysia do not believe in their own laws. And examples in other lands abound, where people are afraid of offending Muslims in any slight way because of the possibility of reprisals, which may include the loss of innocent lives  and limps. The only people who are not cowed are Danish cartoonist who dare to defy the disciples of Muhammad and are paying for their stance, just as Salman Rushdie did many many years ago.

It is really really sad, that terrorism is now synonymous with Islam. And it is really really sad that an angel had to step in to protect McDonalds. After all McDonalds is a major American institution. Its fear would appear to be well founded given that anything American, wherever it is, is a favourite target of Muslim extremist terrorists. Sure Singapore is pretty ok as far as security goes. We book anyone breaking the law and protect the innocent. For that matter, we throw highly suspicious people behind bars anyway, without due process. And our secret service is usually tip top identifying threats and putting would-be perpetrators behind bars. But there is no stopping people bombing McDonalds elsewhere because of what McDonalds Singapore does, or does not do.

It is really really sad.

Cult of religion

On the whole, Singapore takes a balanced approach towards people's beliefs, and their freedom to practice those beliefs. This was one of the major themes in the PM's National Day rally speech this year. And for the most part, this is something to be happy about. There will, of course, be some who think otherwise, when their 'religion' is frowned upon as they propagate values that are alien to a conservative society's, as is Singapore's. Amazingly, this atmosphere prevails when the government openly favours the Muslims in putting aside land for them to build their Mosques. Less so for Christian, who often have had to resort to gathering in house-churches, or abandoned cinemas or even huge conventions centres like those in Suntec City, paying an arm and a leg, to practice their religion every week. But we all live and let live. Religion is not about equality on earth. It is the afterlife, after all, that matters, isn't it? But some religions somehow miss this point.

Thus it is puzzling that peoples in other countries practice their religion in such as literal and earthly manner. This calls to mind whether they are following the letter of the law, and blindly at that, but have lost the spirit of these religous injunctions. For example, we hear of 2 Muslim women sentenced to caning for doing nothing more than drinking beer and wearing pants! Maybe in these places, such barbaric practices are the norm, that women-folk are accepted as the constant object of abuse in the name of religion, if not society at large - even by the women themselves. In the case of the women sentenced to canning, she perversely asked that she be caned. I often wonder if women like her have a sado-masochistic streak or are they plainly longsuffering in the name of religion? Whichever the case, it is probably no wonder that that section of society finds the whole thing quite civilised, proper, and (gasp), holy(istic).

Which reminds me. Today is 911 - the day of infamy when, 8 years ago, a few religious Muslim fanatics found it the height of their obligations to Allah, their God, to first hijack a plane, and then ram them straight into 2 towering buildings in New York City, thus attaining their ultimate religious state at the expense of thousands of poor innocent people. As I am reminded today, these people who perished were fathers, they were mothers, they were sons and daughters, husbands and wives, grandchildren and grandmothers....How can any religion find it right in its teachings that killing innocent people is the way to release? Yet as recent events have shown, in Jakarta for example, these religious fanatics have persisted in their perverse views. They will glady kill again in the name of their religion.

May such thinking and the people who continue to propagate them, face their just deserts when they see their God. Those who have already gone before would have been shocked to discover that they have died for a lie.

In memoriam, to the victims of 911

and terrorism the world over

May you rest in peace

Swine fugitive

Singapore has this slippery relationship with Mas Selamat Kastari. He is a Singapore citizen and yet he wants to wreck Singapore and possibly Singaporeans who are 'suey' enough to be near his targets of destruction. We can understand when a foreigner wants to do that, but a local boy? What has he against Singapore, the land which he adopted from young, albeit it being the choice of his parents? If he hates Singapore that much, why doesn't he remove his entire family to Indonesia, or Malaysia, and let the rest of us get on with our lives instead of having to look over our shoulders all the time and providing him free food and lodging when he is in town, albeit shorn of freedom.

That is why Singapore heaved a collective sigh of relief when news broke that he has been caught by the Malaysia Special Branch in Johore, very near the birth place of his radicalisation. He was reportedly arrested on April 1, 2009. For a moment there, an April Fool's joke flashed across my mind, but I thought it is probably too serious a matter to fool around with. At least, Mr Wong KS and his entire ISD's reputation is at stake. So while we haven't really seen his face since his capture was announced, we believe that he is in police custody. Where exactly he is now held we have the faintest idea. Whether he will be returned to Singapore eventually is not even a foregone conclusion. Actually, a couple of days ago, I had hoped that Influenza A H1N1 would do us the courtesy of infecting him and thus flushing him out. Well, the police beat the swine to it.

You can't always get what you wish for.

Real pain

Terrorism is truly the scourge of this decade. It isn't that terrorism started in the new millenium. Back in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, terrorism reigned for various, but largely, non-religious reasons. At least there wasn't a feeling that any major religion was using terror for its ends. Then, reasons for terrorism were politics, nationalism, mafia and money, not in any order of prevalence.

Ever since 911, Islamist terrorism appears to have defined this decade. Even today, towards the end of 2008, and soon, the first decade of the new millenium, Islamist terrorism still wreaks havoc. This last week, India's Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) suffered its own 911. Having lived through the decade, one is almost numb to these terrrorist acts. First, they killed because US and the UK supported Israel. Today they still do so for the same reason, but in the process, more innocent people of other nationalities have been killed. This week, Singapore suffered its first casualty of this madness. A young lawyer, only 28, was reportedly killed by Islamist terrorists in the Oberoi Hotel, Mumbai. Her body was found on the 19th floor of that building. Ms Lo Hwei Yen, the lawyer, was in Mumbai on assignment.

What more can we say that has not already been said about the cruelty, the indiscriminate, no, the madness of these killers? That's what they really are. Not martyrs, not by any means religious, not god-loving, not compassionate, not human and most of all, not Islamic. They say that their martyrdom will usher them into heaven. Why then are their leaders still living? To send even more naive Muslims on their way to heaven? Utterly ridiculous but painfully real. Sadly, there are probably many closet terrrorists, Muslims who quietly applaud such acts, but who appear to be god-fearing and law-abiding. Is this why Islamist terrorism cannot seem to be defeated?

This blog writer would like to express his condolences to the family of Ms Lo, a fellow Singaporean.

As for the these terrorists and those in the closet, may they never rest in peace. May they rot in hell, forever.

Half a century of terrorism, and counting ... Terrorism 1951-1960 ... Terrorism 1961-1970 ... Terrorism 1971-1980 ... Terrorism 1981-1990 ... Terrorism 1991-2000 ... Terrorism 2000-2010


Image: morgueFile.com. Author: Eleanor & Will

Just do it

Well, now the whole of Singapore, and probably the world, knows how it was possible that Mas Selamat Kastari was able to escape from the Whitley Road Detention Centre (WRDC). I agree with Minister Wong - mistakes do happen from time to time. In this case, the consequence of the mistake was severe - it let loose a dangerous man, resulting in immediate economic losses at the Singapore-Johor Causeway without him raising a finger. From what was revealed in Parliament, I learnt that there are two things you shouldn't do:

First, never put up a CCTV camera unless you put it into immediate operation. This was a problem in WRDC and much earlier, in MRT stations. People think that they are being watched when they aren't, but the organisation that puts these in place are not too concerned that their CCTVs do not work. Some even install them as dummies to scare people - somewhat like a modern day scarecrow. Minister Wong said that those CCTVs in the WRDC were just being put in place and were not operational when MSK made his escape. In this case, nobody could be faulted, unless it is possible to put CCTVs into operation in one day. I don't know, I am not a technician. I don't sell CCTVs much less install one. But someone was caught with his pants down, and that's not MSK's.   

Second, the guards' runaround in alerting another guard who alerted a women who alert yet another man to check the toilet is so typical of government. The Committee of Inquiry (COI) and Minister Wong can't really blame these chaps, really. A colleague of mine who had just moved from the private sector to the public sector said that the difference between working in the private sector is you just do it and inform your superiors later about having done it. In the civil service, you have to go through several layers of reporting, deliberation, discussion, etc. to get approval before you can take action - exactly what happened in the WRDC that gave Mas Selamat a 11-minute lead time to make good his escape. Can you blame the guards' reaction? Can you blame the women Special Duty Operative, a junior ISD officer, for not knocking down the toilet door when the Gurkha Guards don't even think they should do so? No, this has to be referred to a superior for further consideration...Clearly it is the civil service's standard operating procedure which is at fault.

So should we axe Minister Wong? On this, I agree with the PM. While Minister Wong is ultimately responsible as the boss, he had no direct involvement in the whole incident. From what I read in the local papers, this seems to be the majority opinion of readers. So let's be glad that the government pulled no wool over the whole thing, but I may differ in my opinion on who really is at fault... 

Image source: morgueFile.com. Author: Pedrani David Cristian

Conspiracy Theories

As the search for Mas Selamat enters its 9th day, with no sight even of his underwear (which must smell terribly by now), many conspiracy theories are beginning to float around. One has it that Mas Selamat is actually quite dead, not in the forests near the Whitley Detention Centre, but in Whitley Detention Centre itself. According to this conspiracy theory, Mas Selamat died of some cause in the Centre for reasons yet unknown but it was decided to put on a show that he had 'escaped'. Did anybody see him running away? No. He just disappeared, right? Right! News of his faux escape was intentionally let out in order to draw out his remaining accomplices on the island, and even those outside it in order to wipe out the JI once and for all. Why did you think Interpol was notified anyway? Better to use a dead man while, err...he is dead, to get the rest of his gang. That'll be an inspired move.

Another conspiracy theory has it that an important person's son/daughter had been kidnapped by the JI. In order to secure his/her release, a secret agreement was reached to let Mas Selamat go. But since hostage swapping is not the Singapore way, the next best thing was decided on - let him 'escape'. It was all assisted. So the great toilet escape/break is not so great after all. It is more like the great toilet flush. Is it any wonder that he is still not found?

Yet another conspiracy theory has him unknowingly tagged (electronically) and allowed to escape so that he can eventually lead the police and the international community to his mother-of-all lairs. This way, his whole gang can be eliminated in one fell swoop. Of course, a variation of this theory is that his accomplices will find out that he has led the police to them so they will kill Mas Selamat for betrayal of the highest order. This is an old Chinese strategy - borrow one's knife to kill.

A fourth conspiracy theory goes like this. With more poor and needy people in Singapore nowadays, it just isn't morally right to keep giving Mas Selamat a free roof over his head, with free valet, cooks and guards to tend to him, notwithstanding the unexpectedly huge government surplus last year, right? Like the great General Douglas 'I will Return' MacArthur said in his brilliant leap-frogging strategy in the Pacific War, 'Let's ignore these enemy soldiers that remain on the islands, let the jungles eat/kill/finish them for us'. He can only run into the nearby forest which he can never hope to leave because his face will be plastered everywhere. The police will put on a show of searching for him for as long as it takes for the jungle to kill him. It is likely that he will be dead in a week, at most. Thank you, General MacArthur (and the military historians from the National University of Singapore, who suggested this).

A fifth theory has it that the US is secretly putting pressure on Singapore to dump its Internal Security Act, which allows detention without trial, though they conveniently overlook Guantanamo Bay in their own backyard. In order to appease a great ally, Mas Selamat was allowed to escape so that he will either lead the police to his accomplices, die in the jungle, or any variations of the above theories.

All these account for the question on everyone's lips when the press went to town only 4 hours after his actual escape to report on the event: how can anyone escape from Singapore's prison? Easy - he was intentionally let out. That 4 hours was necessary to cover any tracks and destroy incriminating evidence of a conspiracy.

Have you heard of any other conspiracy theory?

Image source: morgueFile.com. Author: Michael Ponton

The Great Toilet Escape

People like Mas Selamat Kastari shows the pain and cost that needs to be put in to keep the peace. People like him never seem to see the error of their ways. Although he has been incarcerated in Singapore for the last two years, and has had a lot of time to reflect on what he has done and perhaps turn back from the error of his ways. I am sure Muslim religious leaders must have been counseling him all this while, but apparently to no effect. Now, he has chosen to run away and likely back to his terrorist lifestyle. That's why people are wary of him, even afraid that he will set off a terrorist attack as revenge, which will surely take innocent lives.

Inexplicably, he managed to escape from his Whitely Road detention centre. That was when his relatives came a calling. Clearly, freedom is more important than his relatives. He knows he cannot run to them once he is free because he would like be recaptured. Singapore is a small island, smaller than even Bintan, where he was last apprehended by the Indonesian Authorities. And there aren't many forests or wide rural spaces for one to hide on the island. Wild fruits or food is not exactly in great abundance for a person to survive on for long, but then he may be a seasoned terrorist who has learnt to survive on less. Unfortunately, or fortunately for Mas, there are some secondary forested areas near Whitely for him to hide in.

The issues that vexes the authorities and many residents on the island is how he could have escaped in the first place. Granted, it may not be a maximum security detention centre, but given his record as the most wanted person, one would have expected stringent procedures to be in place or if in place, to be followed closely. Yet he gave these pros the slip. Heads may roll, but it wouldn't be Mas', at least, not yet.

Now is the time for all kay-poh Singaporeans and others on the island to be extra kay-poh. Report to the authorities if you spot anybody resembling him. And do it quick for obviously, if Mas is quick out of the toilet, he will be quick out of anywhere.

Look out for the man in these photos!