On Feb 28, 2008, 2 days ago, I had written the following post in this blog, Was Mas Selamat Kastari assited in his escape? And by whom? I had pointed out that, and as you already know, that escape from Whitley Detention Center is impossible. The only questions that remain are, did he die in custody, or was he assisted in escaping?
It is not necessary to belabor the obvious. Escape from Whitely Detention Center is impossible. You know it as well as I. It is the most high security detention facility in Singapore. It is guarded entirely by Gurkha troopers. As a single group of soldiers, up till today, the Gurkhas who serve in the British Army have been awarded the highest number of Victoria Crosses, the highest award for bravery beyond the call of duty in the face of the enemy in battle. Their courage and discipline is legendary.
In Whitely Detention Center, they are not in battle. Their duties there are merely to secure the detention facility and to ensure those pathetic unarmed prisoners do not escape. A job that can be described as a piece of cake for them. The easiest thing in the world. What, with security cameras, barbed wire, 20 foot high electrified fences, with disciplined crack Gurkhas at every nook and corner under 24 hours surveillance, telling us that Mas Selamat Kastari, a man with a broken leg escaped, is to insult our intelligence. Although it is true that Singaporeans are totally cowed into submission and fear and unable to criticize this Lee Kuan Yew dictatorship; please do not insult us even further by treating us as children. Even a child will not believe that this man with a broken leg escaped from that impregnable fortress!
No. Since an unassisted escape is ruled out, the remaining possibilities are that he died under torture. Second either the Gurkhas or high level members of the Singapore ISD were bribed into letting him go; just as the Singapore Kidney Foundation had corruptly made off with millions of Singaporeans hard earned money, the principle culprit I understand is enjoying the high life in Dubai or some other Arab gulf state!
Now let us look into the possibility that he escaped with the help of some corrupted Gurkhas. A strong possibility in the present circumstances, which cannot be ignored. Are we not overlooking the possible serious dangerous consequences to Singapore; if this was true?
As Lee Kuan Yew does not believe the Singapore Armed Forces or Singapore Police are neither efficient or capable enough of guarding its vital installations such as the power stations, its TV and Radio Stations, its airports, its border posts, the Singapore Treasury and other vital places including the residence of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his son; Lee has instead relied on the Gurkhas, a foreign mercenary military and police troopers to do this job. The only country in the world which does not have faith in its own soldiers and police; relying instead on foreign mercenaries!
Now, if in fact it was some Gurkha troopers at the Whitely Detention Facility who collaborated with some unknown foreign agencies to allow Mr. Kastari to escape, is not the security of every vital installation in Singapore, vital to the very survival and existence of Singapore threatened, by these Gurkhas?
What happens if for a sufficient sum of money, the Gurkhas guarding the Singapore power stations permitted Jama Islamia to destroy them? What happens if they were to do the same at the Singapore Airport? To Singapore’s water supply, to the border posts; what happens if they permit an attack to occur against Lee Kuan Yew and his son himself? Although it is true that a majority of Singaporeans would in fact rejoice if Lee Kuan Yew were eliminated forever from the face of this Earth taking his son along with him; being Singaporeans of honor and conscience, we would not want that to really happen.
Is this not the correct time for Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his son and other family members to sit down together and ask themselves whether their family, that is the Lee family, can continue in confidence in safety? Is it safe? That is whether they will be safe with these foreign mercenaries. These Gurkhas who will serve anyone who pays them; the British, the Brunei Government; the Singapore government, and I do not who else?
In the present circumstances, especially since Mr. Kastari is alleged to have done the impossible, should not these Gurkhas be brought into the equation? Especially since up till today, the Singapore government has not complied with the requests of Dr. Chee Soon Juan of the Singapore Democratic Party on this important matter of national interest.
They have not produced the video film from the CCTV cameras at Whitley Detention Center. They have not provided any statement from the police in charge at the facility. They have not provided any detailed explanation as to how he escaped. How long did it take him to escape? Did he scale a fence? Was it electrified? How did he manage to scale an electrified fence? Did he breach a hole in the fence? How did he do it? Did he use a Bangalore torpedo for it? Who supplied it? Did he burrow a tunnel in the ground? Why are there no pictures? Were there Gurkhas at the gate? Why did the Gurkhas let him out? Was the gate guarded at the time? How many sentries were there? Were there no sentries? What were their names? Was the Gurkha Ram Bahadhur Thapa there? And why not? Was he absent without leave? What is happening to the Brigade of Gurkhas after all?
I can go on. We have no answers. Singaporeans are not idiots. They may be rabbits who live in fear of Lee Kuan Yew as salves, but they are not idiots. Please don’t treat them as one.
We want answers. An investigation. After all Lee is taking $3.7 million a year in so called salary!
And according to Lee it is a first world country! This is not the way a First World Country is expected to behave!
Singaporeans question escape of alleged militant leader
02 March 2008
SINGAPORE’S government has come under stinging public criticism after the escape of an alleged militant leader from custody dented the country’s reputation for airtight security.
Letters to the editor and Internet blogs by Singaporeans took officials to task for the escape on Wednesday of Mas Selamat bin Kastari, alleged leader of the Singapore wing of the militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah.
Open criticism of the government is rare in tightly ruled Singapore, but the apparent ease with which Kastari managed to slip out of a detention centre raised questions about the authorities’ anti-terrorist measures.
Since his escape, security forces including paramilitary Nepalese Gurkhas employed by the police have been combing the island and keeping a tight watch on its borders with Malaysia and Indonesia.
Kastari was accused of plotting to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Singapore’s busy Changi Airport in 2001, but never charged in court. He was being held under an internal security law which allows for detention without trial.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said Kastari escaped after he was permitted to use the toilet during a visit by family members.
‘I am sure Singaporeans would like to know the details of the escape - what happened from the time the terrorist left for the restroom while his family members were waiting for him,’ said a letter from reader Rosemary Chwee published on Saturday by Singapore’s leading daily, The Straits Times.
‘Such a slip is professionally unforgivable... As a citizen, I am deeply concerned, especially if Mas Selamat continues to be on the loose,’ she wrote.
Police flyers seeking public help in recapturing the 47-year-old Kastari say he is ‘not known to be armed’ and walks with a limp.
‘What puzzles me is how a middle-aged man who has difficulty walking can leave the detention centre with such ease,’ wrote another reader, Siow Jia Rui.
Another letter writer, Lee Beng Hai, suspected Kastari could have been helped by ‘sleepers and sympathisers’.
Internet blog sites - the usual refuge of Singapore government critics who are denied space in the mainstream media - were full of chatter and conspiracy theories on the escape.
Even the Straits Times, which is closely identified with the government, said in an editorial that the authorities had to confront the question of whether Kastari had help.
‘It stretches credulity to imagine this was an opportunistic solo effort... The escape was too easy, too neat,’ it said.
If he had help, it would mean ‘terror cells are still morphing and sympathisers are being drawn into the network’, the newspaper said.
If he acted alone, ‘the system breakdown was egregious’, it added. ‘Security incidents like this one... will shake confidence in the anti-terror system.’
The editorial said complacency may have set in because Singapore has been spared from terrorist violence so far.
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Singapore has implemented tough security measures and rounded up suspected militants and sympathisers of the Jemaah Islamiyah.
The group has been blamed for a series of attacks including the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali which killed 202 people, mostly tourists.
Kastari, a Singaporean citizen of Indonesian ancestry, was handed over by Indonesian officials after his second arrest there in 2006.
Singapore is a predominantly ethnic Chinese city-state which has a Malay Muslim minority and hosts hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, many of them Malaysians and Indonesians. -- AFP
Was Mas Selamat Kastari assited in his escape? And by whom?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On February 27, 2008 Mas Salamat Kastari, an alleged member of the Jama Islamia, in detention at the top security Internal Security Detention Center at Whitely Road managed to escape. Did he manage it himself or was he given a helping hand?
I don’t think anyone who knows anything about Singapore or it’s prisons even for one moment actually believes that Kastari managed to escape himself. Not possible in Singapore unless he can fly, but he cannot. And mind you even if he can fly, he still will not be able to escape from this particular facility because even Fort Knox does not have the security that it has. To put it in 3 words, that place at Onoret Road is “Top Top Security” from which no one escapes, period. Regardless of the stories put out by the state controlled press of Singapore, such as “he escaped from the prison’s toilet”! You can say that to the Marines! But you are not saying that to me!
How then did he manage it? If you consider the background facts, many possibilities come to mind.
The JI are connected to Al Queda. And being Arabs, they have money. Lots of it. And their reputation is being hurt by their number one man in JI being held in Singapore. So with their money, they are in a good position to try to get their man out. Their reputation is hurting with their Number one JI man in prison in Singapore.
Then we have the Gurkhas who are the main guards at that facility. Gurkhas come from Nepal. No matter how good their reputation is for integrity and loyalty, they come from a country where corruption is a way of life.You cannot manage to get anything done, even the simplest thing, without a bribe. The Gurkhas coming from Nepal are fully accustomed in these corrupt ways; even if they themselves are not corrupt.
Then we have the local Singaporean police and Internal Security Department Officers who are in charge. In Singapore corruption exists at the highest levels of government and is openly done. The Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew and his son, pay themselves $3.7 million a year, not counting the other millions being siphoned off from the profits of government linked companies such as Tumasek and GIC Singapore. Such corruption by the Lee family is condoned by the Singapore population.
With such a bad example set by the government ministers themselves, at the highest levels of bureaucracy, Singapore people have become immersed in corrupt ways. You have heard of Singapore lawyers being the most dishonest of lawyers anywhere in the world, with their constant running away with their clients money. Almost one lawyer a month!
Then we constantly hear of corrupt police officers, corrupt real estate agents, corrupt officers of charities, the biggest crooks being those in the National Kidney Foundation whose theft ran into several millions. Corruption is an accepted way of life for Singaporeans, such as it is for the citizens of Nepal.
So is it not possible that the following had happened? From 2006, the time Kastrai had been detained at the Whitely Detention Center, oil rich Arab financiers could have been talking to the Singapore police and ISD officers and the Gurkha police there; to see if they could bribe one or more of them to arrange an escape for Kastari, in return for a small bribe of say $3 million US dollars, to be paid into the bank account of say, Ram Bahadhur Gurung, a common Gurkha name, into his bank account in Kathmandu or perhaps Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles?
Or perhaps the bank account of Chua Mui Hoong or some other like her, ISD officer who doubles as the Editor of the state controlled paper the Straits Times; into her bank account perhaps in the Cayman Islands or Bermuda?
$3 million US Dollars is very encouraging and very persuasive for both the particular Gurkha officer or the corrupt Singapore police or ISD Officer; but a mere trifling for the oil rich Arabs.
This is what I think could have happened. It is impossible for him to escape from that detention facility. He was assisted, perhaps by a Gurkha. It is true that Gurkhas have an impeccable reputation for loyalty and integrity, but only so far. Yes, they served the British Army loyally and with distinction for over 400 years. They do so even today. But with the Gurkhas increased sophistication and modernity today, the question is, do they have the same loyalty for dictatorships like Singapore and for dictators such as Lee Kuan Yew.
I am sure every Gurkha just like most educated Singaporeans have only disgust and abhorrence for men such as Lee Kuan Yew who go around the island bullying his detractors. Singapore, they know, is not Her Britannic Majesty’s Great Britain. The UK is a respectable country. Singapore is nothing more than a banana republic. So perhaps, a few Gurkhas had finally decided that Lee Kuan Yew himself should be taught a lesson by pointing out to him, that he is not so smart after all; took the money from the Arabs and will soon leave Singapore when their tour of duty ends for a life of luxury and privilege with $3 million dollars?
Could not some Singaporean like Chua Mui Hoong or some other ISD officer stationed at the detention facility have done the same?
In fact they could have not only carried out the escape; they probably also made Singapore look like an absolute fool. If you recall, the government had not made the escape public till 4 hours after the escape. Could not the Gurkhas and the Singapore police involved have deliberately done this so as to give ample time for Kastari to change from prison clothes; jump into a waiting car with his baggage; sped off to Malaysian border post with a false passport and quietly entered Malaysia en route to Indonesia. All easily in 4 long hours? And while Kastrari was already either in Malaysia or Indonesia, Singapore police have carried on with their desperate island wide manhunt searching under drains culverts manholes for the invincible JI leader.
And in fact, the Singapore police and army goons are still at it; with island wide manhunt, standing in the way of everyone and everybody going about their business; causing obstruction and annoyance; claiming to be looking for the elusive Kastari?
Had I been Kastari, safely in some village in Indonesia watching the hard work of the Singapore police, I would be opening a bottle of champagne and having a good laugh. But being a Muslim, perhaps he did not have that champagne, but nice good cup of coffee would be fine enough.
And by the way, should not Lee Kuan Yew, who does not trust his own Singapore police to guard him and his family; trusting the Gurkhas instead; perhaps now reconsider whether is it such a good idea after all; trusting these Gurkhas to protect them? If they could have possibly let Kastari escape for money, could they also not turn a blind eye if the Al Queda is minded to finish off Lee Kuan Yew? Perhaps for another small sum of $3 million US dollars? Lee Kuan Yew has to answer this question himself. I cannot do it for him.
And by the way, Singapore’s octogenarian, Lee Kuan Yew, has written a book claiming it is a first world country!
3 comments:
The Gurkhas. Is it safe?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On Feb 28, 2008, 2 days ago, I had written the following post in this blog, Was Mas Selamat Kastari assited in his escape? And by whom? I had pointed out that, and as you already know, that escape from Whitley Detention Center is impossible. The only questions that remain are, did he die in custody, or was he assisted in escaping?
It is not necessary to belabor the obvious. Escape from Whitely Detention Center is impossible. You know it as well as I. It is the most high security detention facility in Singapore. It is guarded entirely by Gurkha troopers. As a single group of soldiers, up till today, the Gurkhas who serve in the British Army have been awarded the highest number of Victoria Crosses, the highest award for bravery beyond the call of duty in the face of the enemy in battle. Their courage and discipline is legendary.
In Whitely Detention Center, they are not in battle. Their duties there are merely to secure the detention facility and to ensure those pathetic unarmed prisoners do not escape. A job that can be described as a piece of cake for them. The easiest thing in the world. What, with security cameras, barbed wire, 20 foot high electrified fences, with disciplined crack Gurkhas at every nook and corner under 24 hours surveillance, telling us that Mas Selamat Kastari, a man with a broken leg escaped, is to insult our intelligence. Although it is true that Singaporeans are totally cowed into submission and fear and unable to criticize this Lee Kuan Yew dictatorship; please do not insult us even further by treating us as children. Even a child will not believe that this man with a broken leg escaped from that impregnable fortress!
No. Since an unassisted escape is ruled out, the remaining possibilities are that he died under torture. Second either the Gurkhas or high level members of the Singapore ISD were bribed into letting him go; just as the Singapore Kidney Foundation had corruptly made off with millions of Singaporeans hard earned money, the principle culprit I understand is enjoying the high life in Dubai or some other Arab gulf state!
Now let us look into the possibility that he escaped with the help of some corrupted Gurkhas. A strong possibility in the present circumstances, which cannot be ignored. Are we not overlooking the possible serious dangerous consequences to Singapore; if this was true?
As Lee Kuan Yew does not believe the Singapore Armed Forces or Singapore Police are neither efficient or capable enough of guarding its vital installations such as the power stations, its TV and Radio Stations, its airports, its border posts, the Singapore Treasury and other vital places including the residence of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his son; Lee has instead relied on the Gurkhas, a foreign mercenary military and police troopers to do this job. The only country in the world which does not have faith in its own soldiers and police; relying instead on foreign mercenaries!
Now, if in fact it was some Gurkha troopers at the Whitely Detention Facility who collaborated with some unknown foreign agencies to allow Mr. Kastari to escape, is not the security of every vital installation in Singapore, vital to the very survival and existence of Singapore threatened, by these Gurkhas?
What happens if for a sufficient sum of money, the Gurkhas guarding the Singapore power stations permitted Jama Islamia to destroy them? What happens if they were to do the same at the Singapore Airport? To Singapore’s water supply, to the border posts; what happens if they permit an attack to occur against Lee Kuan Yew and his son himself? Although it is true that a majority of Singaporeans would in fact rejoice if Lee Kuan Yew were eliminated forever from the face of this Earth taking his son along with him; being Singaporeans of honor and conscience, we would not want that to really happen.
Is this not the correct time for Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his son and other family members to sit down together and ask themselves whether their family, that is the Lee family, can continue in confidence in safety? Is it safe? That is whether they will be safe with these foreign mercenaries. These Gurkhas who will serve anyone who pays them; the British, the Brunei Government; the Singapore government, and I do not who else?
In the present circumstances, especially since Mr. Kastari is alleged to have done the impossible, should not these Gurkhas be brought into the equation? Especially since up till today, the Singapore government has not complied with the requests of Dr. Chee Soon Juan of the Singapore Democratic Party on this important matter of national interest.
They have not produced the video film from the CCTV cameras at Whitley Detention Center. They have not provided any statement from the police in charge at the facility. They have not provided any detailed explanation as to how he escaped. How long did it take him to escape? Did he scale a fence? Was it electrified? How did he manage to scale an electrified fence? Did he breach a hole in the fence? How did he do it? Did he use a Bangalore torpedo for it? Who supplied it? Did he burrow a tunnel in the ground? Why are there no pictures? Were there Gurkhas at the gate? Why did the Gurkhas let him out? Was the gate guarded at the time? How many sentries were there? Were there no sentries? What were their names? Was the Gurkha Ram Bahadhur Thapa there? And why not? Was he absent without leave? What is happening to the Brigade of Gurkhas after all?
I can go on. We have no answers. Singaporeans are not idiots. They may be rabbits who live in fear of Lee Kuan Yew as salves, but they are not idiots. Please don’t treat them as one.
We want answers. An investigation. After all Lee is taking $3.7 million a year in so called salary!
And according to Lee it is a first world country! This is not the way a First World Country is expected to behave!
Gopalan Nair
Singaporeans question escape of alleged militant leader
02 March 2008
SINGAPORE’S government has come under stinging public criticism after the escape of an alleged militant leader from custody dented the country’s reputation for airtight security.
Letters to the editor and Internet blogs by Singaporeans took officials to task for the escape on Wednesday of Mas Selamat bin Kastari, alleged leader of the Singapore wing of the militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah.
Open criticism of the government is rare in tightly ruled Singapore, but the apparent ease with which Kastari managed to slip out of a detention centre raised questions about the authorities’ anti-terrorist measures.
Since his escape, security forces including paramilitary Nepalese Gurkhas employed by the police have been combing the island and keeping a tight watch on its borders with Malaysia and Indonesia.
Kastari was accused of plotting to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Singapore’s busy Changi Airport in 2001, but never charged in court. He was being held under an internal security law which allows for detention without trial.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said Kastari escaped after he was permitted to use the toilet during a visit by family members.
‘I am sure Singaporeans would like to know the details of the escape - what happened from the time the terrorist left for the restroom while his family members were waiting for him,’ said a letter from reader Rosemary Chwee published on Saturday by Singapore’s leading daily, The Straits Times.
‘Such a slip is professionally unforgivable... As a citizen, I am deeply concerned, especially if Mas Selamat continues to be on the loose,’ she wrote.
Police flyers seeking public help in recapturing the 47-year-old Kastari say he is ‘not known to be armed’ and walks with a limp.
‘What puzzles me is how a middle-aged man who has difficulty walking can leave the detention centre with such ease,’ wrote another reader, Siow Jia Rui.
Another letter writer, Lee Beng Hai, suspected Kastari could have been helped by ‘sleepers and sympathisers’.
Internet blog sites - the usual refuge of Singapore government critics who are denied space in the mainstream media - were full of chatter and conspiracy theories on the escape.
Even the Straits Times, which is closely identified with the government, said in an editorial that the authorities had to confront the question of whether Kastari had help.
‘It stretches credulity to imagine this was an opportunistic solo effort... The escape was too easy, too neat,’ it said.
If he had help, it would mean ‘terror cells are still morphing and sympathisers are being drawn into the network’, the newspaper said.
If he acted alone, ‘the system breakdown was egregious’, it added.
‘Security incidents like this one... will shake confidence in the anti-terror system.’
The editorial said complacency may have set in because Singapore has been spared from terrorist violence so far.
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Singapore has implemented tough security measures and rounded up suspected militants and sympathisers of the Jemaah Islamiyah.
The group has been blamed for a series of attacks including the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali which killed 202 people, mostly tourists.
Kastari, a Singaporean citizen of Indonesian ancestry, was handed over by Indonesian officials after his second arrest there in 2006.
Singapore is a predominantly ethnic Chinese city-state which has a Malay Muslim minority and hosts hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, many of them Malaysians and Indonesians. -- AFP
Was Mas Selamat Kastari assited in his escape? And by whom?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On February 27, 2008 Mas Salamat Kastari, an alleged member of the Jama Islamia, in detention at the top security Internal Security Detention Center at Whitely Road managed to escape. Did he manage it himself or was he given a helping hand?
I don’t think anyone who knows anything about Singapore or it’s prisons even for one moment actually believes that Kastari managed to escape himself. Not possible in Singapore unless he can fly, but he cannot. And mind you even if he can fly, he still will not be able to escape from this particular facility because even Fort Knox does not have the security that it has. To put it in 3 words, that place at Onoret Road is “Top Top Security” from which no one escapes, period. Regardless of the stories put out by the state controlled press of Singapore, such as “he escaped from the prison’s toilet”! You can say that to the Marines! But you are not saying that to me!
How then did he manage it? If you consider the background facts, many possibilities come to mind.
The JI are connected to Al Queda. And being Arabs, they have money. Lots of it. And their reputation is being hurt by their number one man in JI being held in Singapore. So with their money, they are in a good position to try to get their man out. Their reputation is hurting with their Number one JI man in prison in Singapore.
Then we have the Gurkhas who are the main guards at that facility. Gurkhas come from Nepal. No matter how good their reputation is for integrity and loyalty, they come from a country where corruption is a way of life.You cannot manage to get anything done, even the simplest thing, without a bribe. The Gurkhas coming from Nepal are fully accustomed in these corrupt ways; even if they themselves are not corrupt.
Then we have the local Singaporean police and Internal Security Department Officers who are in charge. In Singapore corruption exists at the highest levels of government and is openly done. The Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew and his son, pay themselves $3.7 million a year, not counting the other millions being siphoned off from the profits of government linked companies such as Tumasek and GIC Singapore. Such corruption by the Lee family is condoned by the Singapore population.
With such a bad example set by the government ministers themselves, at the highest levels of bureaucracy, Singapore people have become immersed in corrupt ways. You have heard of Singapore lawyers being the most dishonest of lawyers anywhere in the world, with their constant running away with their clients money. Almost one lawyer a month!
Then we constantly hear of corrupt police officers, corrupt real estate agents, corrupt officers of charities, the biggest crooks being those in the National Kidney Foundation whose theft ran into several millions. Corruption is an accepted way of life for Singaporeans, such as it is for the citizens of Nepal.
So is it not possible that the following had happened? From 2006, the time Kastrai had been detained at the Whitely Detention Center, oil rich Arab financiers could have been talking to the Singapore police and ISD officers and the Gurkha police there; to see if they could bribe one or more of them to arrange an escape for Kastari, in return for a small bribe of say $3 million US dollars, to be paid into the bank account of say, Ram Bahadhur Gurung, a common Gurkha name, into his bank account in Kathmandu or perhaps Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles?
Or perhaps the bank account of Chua Mui Hoong or some other like her, ISD officer who doubles as the Editor of the state controlled paper the Straits Times; into her bank account perhaps in the Cayman Islands or Bermuda?
$3 million US Dollars is very encouraging and very persuasive for both the particular Gurkha officer or the corrupt Singapore police or ISD Officer; but a mere trifling for the oil rich Arabs.
This is what I think could have happened. It is impossible for him to escape from that detention facility. He was assisted, perhaps by a Gurkha. It is true that Gurkhas have an impeccable reputation for loyalty and integrity, but only so far. Yes, they served the British Army loyally and with distinction for over 400 years. They do so even today. But with the Gurkhas increased sophistication and modernity today, the question is, do they have the same loyalty for dictatorships like Singapore and for dictators such as Lee Kuan Yew.
I am sure every Gurkha just like most educated Singaporeans have only disgust and abhorrence for men such as Lee Kuan Yew who go around the island bullying his detractors. Singapore, they know, is not Her Britannic Majesty’s Great Britain. The UK is a respectable country. Singapore is nothing more than a banana republic. So perhaps, a few Gurkhas had finally decided that Lee Kuan Yew himself should be taught a lesson by pointing out to him, that he is not so smart after all; took the money from the Arabs and will soon leave Singapore when their tour of duty ends for a life of luxury and privilege with $3 million dollars?
Could not some Singaporean like Chua Mui Hoong or some other ISD officer stationed at the detention facility have done the same?
In fact they could have not only carried out the escape; they probably also made Singapore look like an absolute fool. If you recall, the government had not made the escape public till 4 hours after the escape. Could not the Gurkhas and the Singapore police involved have deliberately done this so as to give ample time for Kastari to change from prison clothes; jump into a waiting car with his baggage; sped off to Malaysian border post with a false passport and quietly entered Malaysia en route to Indonesia. All easily in 4 long hours? And while Kastrari was already either in Malaysia or Indonesia, Singapore police have carried on with their desperate island wide manhunt searching under drains culverts manholes for the invincible JI leader.
And in fact, the Singapore police and army goons are still at it; with island wide manhunt, standing in the way of everyone and everybody going about their business; causing obstruction and annoyance; claiming to be looking for the elusive Kastari?
Had I been Kastari, safely in some village in Indonesia watching the hard work of the Singapore police, I would be opening a bottle of champagne and having a good laugh. But being a Muslim, perhaps he did not have that champagne, but nice good cup of coffee would be fine enough.
And by the way, should not Lee Kuan Yew, who does not trust his own Singapore police to guard him and his family; trusting the Gurkhas instead; perhaps now reconsider whether is it such a good idea after all; trusting these Gurkhas to protect them? If they could have possibly let Kastari escape for money, could they also not turn a blind eye if the Al Queda is minded to finish off Lee Kuan Yew? Perhaps for another small sum of $3 million US dollars? Lee Kuan Yew has to answer this question himself. I cannot do it for him.
And by the way, Singapore’s octogenarian, Lee Kuan Yew, has written a book claiming it is a first world country!
Gopalan Nair
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