English homework (social issues)

Mas Selamat acted alone, still in S'pore: police

This article revolves around a terrorist by the name of Mas Selamat Kasatari. He escaped a detention centre last Wednesday. It took place at 4.05pm when he asked the police if he could use the toilet at Whitley Road Detention Centre. Deputy Prime Minister also shared that there is no evidence that the fugitive has fled Singapore. Mas Selamat’s breakout has sparked an unprecedented nationwide hunt, with more than 1000 police, soldiers and elite Nepalese Ghurkhas mobilised to comb all forested nature parks and unoccupied buildings across Singapore. On Sunday, the searchers with dogs trekked through the forest surrounding Lower Pierce’s Reservoir. Mas Selamat has a limp in his left leg when he walks briskly or runs, otherwise he has the normal gait of any man. Police believes that he is still in Singapore as without help, money and transport means, and given the tightened security checks and controls on all border checkpoints and the coastline, he is unlikely to have fled Singapore. More than 54,000 posters and leaflets with the Mas Selamat's pictures and description have been placed at train and bus stations, shopping malls, housing estates and distributed by grassroots leaders and community volunteers. The police urge members of the public to call them if they spot him. Even the three major mobile phone operators in Singapore- Singtel, Starhub and M1 – are also sending out messages with pictures of the fugitive to 3.9 million subscribers. All of these makes it very difficult for him to escape as the public will easily recognise him.

This article shows how big a threat he poses to Singapore’s national security and what painstaking efforts have been taken to try and find Mas Selamat. He had plotted to crash a hijack plane into Changi Airport not long ago. The fact that so many posters and leaflets have been distributed, and over 1000 police and soldiers have been mobilised in the search of Mas Selamat, it shows that Singapore treats this matter very seriously. The efficiency and security level in Singapore will inevitably be questioned. In my opinion, the police at the detention centre should have made sure he could not escape and should have implemented tighter security. For example, they could fix up metal bars on the window to prevent criminals from climbing out. Even though this was a mistake, Singapore’s security is trying to make up for it by distributing posters and leaflets and mobilising security personnel in their bid to find him. He is able to survive for long periods in jungle as he was trained in it and thus it makes it more difficult to find him. Hopefully, detention centres will implement tighter security to prevent such incidences to happen in the future and Mas Selamat will soon be caught.


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