Benjamin "Mr Miyagi" Lee
Dear Blog,Lam Pin Min beat me to it again. I was just about to post this up, and I log on and find that he’s beaten all of us to the blog again. Well done, colleague.
Speaking of colleagues, we are all colleagues in this team, whether or not we are in Cabinet. And a lot of talk these past two days has been about accountability.
Continue reading “Secret blog of a P65 MP: Part 5”
Reuters’ headline for the topic of the week goes below the belt: “Singapore says militant escaped without trousers” (via I.Z. Reloaded).
They’ve said that the dude’s a master of disguise, and the first suspicious character that came to mind was “Singa The Courtesy Lion”. The resemblance is uncanny.
So the report is out, and our apartment’s security guard intimated that there were some areas of Singapore where apartment security was stricter, and where security guards like him were instructed to always take down particulars of visitors and their vehicles and not let anyone who didn’t oblige with their particulars into the private compound. At all.
“I was instructed to take down all particulars and not let anyone who didn’t oblige with their particulars into the private compound. At all”, he said.
He also told me that visitors to our apartment block had complained about his conscientiousness, saying that he was harrassing them when all they wanted to do was to drive into the visitors’ lots and visit their friends.
He found it very difficult to do his job properly, he said. Some people just don’t care about security, he added.
If only all security guards, including the sleepy night guard, were like him. Not only is he a conscientious security guard, he’s also been our rental intelligence. One of the apartments in the development is going for $7,000 a month, he says.
“That’s really crazy”, I say. “And that’s why we have to move. Our income hasn’t increased by 120% in line with rentals”, I say.
We’re gonna miss him.
Ahead of today’s much anticipated report on the escape of Mas Selamat Kastari, Todayonline had an article talking about terrorism and what our fine nation’s efforts have done and not done.
It says William Dobson, “managing editor of global politics magazine Foreign Policy“ comments that “Most countries’ strategies end with arresting terrorists. However, he said, Singapore’s battle against terrorism is comprehensive and effective as it also tries to prevent extremism and attempts to reform terrorists in detention.”
See? It was always a “catch and release” program.
But the thrust of the article is of course the “C” word:
He cautioned that although Singapore has been effective in “dampening the threat of extremism”, it needs to guard against complacency. “When you’re very effective on a consistent basis, it’s easy to begin to believe that you’re relatively infallible or there are no other, better ways to do things,” he said, citing the escape of JI leader Mas Selamat Kastari as an example.
Ang Moh say what is what lor.
Thanks to Lancerlord, who found shocking news about himself on this website, I found another article that might just rattle us out of our… um… complacency.
