Singapore gov't butt of jokes after prison escape
Terrorism
is usually no laughing matter, especially not in
security-conscious Singapore, but the escape from custody of a
limping Islamist extremist suspect has led to scorn on the
Internet.
Barbed jokes and irreverent spoofs have sprouted
up on websites five days after Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the
alleged Singapore chief of regional terror group Jemaah
Islamiyah, escaped with apparent ease from a detention
centre.
"Toilet Break, based on a true story starring
Mas Selamat Kastari," read a mock post on one wesbite by a
blogger inspired by the hit US television drama "Prison
Break".
Blogger Philip Chua wrote: "Singapore
has now dropped the ball big time and really is an international
laughing stock."
"You don't see prisoners
escaping from terrorist detention centres in the West or
Guantanamo. More so a leader of the terrorist network in the
country next to you!"
Kastari, who was arrested in
neighbouring Indonesia in 2006 and turned over to Singapore,
remained at large Monday and officials said he was likely to be
still hiding in this multiracial island republic of 4.7 million
people.
Accused of plotting to hijack a plane in order to
crash it into Singapore's Changi airport in 2001, Kastari managed
to escape after asking to go to the toilet during a family visit,
security officials said.
Direct criticism of the
government is rare in the mainstream media, forcing dissatisfied
Singaporeans to resort to the Internet to express their
views.
Teoh Khengze, a Singapore-based author and
journalist, wrote on his blog that the circumstances of what he
called "The Great Singapore Escape" were "as
incredulous as the escape is audacious."
Talkingcock.com,
a popular satirical site, said Kastari's escape underlined the
need to give cabinet ministers another salary hike even though
they were already among the highest-paid in the world.
"We
need to equip our Mini-stars with everything they can to deal
with this crisis... and as we know in Singapore, public service
and legislative influence are all not sufficient incentives,"
it said.
"Only the highest salaries in the world will
do," the humour site said.
It showed 13 doctored
photographs of Kastari in various possible disguises - in a
blonde woman's wig, a 1960s-style Afro hairdo and aviator
sunglasses, a handlebar moustache and a beard and turban in Osama
bin Laden style.
A popular Singaporean blogger who has
previously irked the government with attacks on high living costs
said the city-state need not worry about losing cabinet
ministers.
"They won't be asked to resign or even
take a pay cut," wrote the blogger known as Mr. Brown.
"We
are not like those free-wheeling and chaotic governments from
Western democracies that make their leaders accountable for every
little thing.
http://singaporedemocrat.org/articleJIescape1.html
If selamat gets caught again, the salaries of the ministers will be increased another 10%. President will get 20%