Kastari Escaped From Singapore Detention Centre Without His Trousers!

Singapore says a suspected Islamic militant managed to escape from a detention centre two months ago mainly due to an unlocked window in the toilet - and fled without his trousers.

Wong Kan Seng, Singapore's deputy prime minister, told parliament today that Mas Selamat bin Kastari flipped his trousers above the cubicle door before escaping through a window.

"The guard had assumed that the urinal cubicle was a secure facility and that Mas Selamat could not escape from it. This assumption was wrong,'' he said.

Wong said Kastari had planned his escape "over time'' and that the two guards who escorted him to the toilet had "failed in their duties''.

"In my view, the security weakness of this window is the single most crucial factor which enabled Mas Selamat to escape,'' he said.

Wong said he was not sure how Kastari managed to get over the double perimeter fence at the centre, but said he could have "exploited a weakness'' in a section of the fencing.

Kastari, the suspected leader of the Singapore cell of al-Qaeda-linked militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI), escaped in February from a detention centre where he was being held for allegedly plotting to crash a plane into Singapore's airport.

His escape sparked a massive manhunt on the tiny city-state that saw Nepali Gurkhas combing forests and a global security alert from Interpol.

JI has been blamed for the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Wong said that the investigation into Kastari's escape concluded that he received no help from the centre's guards or staff and was not assisted by someone from the outside.

The escape was seen by some experts as highly embarrassing for Singapore, which prides itself on tight security.

Wong said the authorities were considering building a new detention centre inside a prison.

Singapore, a strong US ally and a major base for Western businesses, sees itself as a prime target in the region after it said it foiled JI plots in 2001 to attack its airport and other sites, including the US embassy, the American Club and the Singapore American School.

***** There are several questions which come to mind after reading the explanation given at Singapore's parliament. If Kastari did not get help from anyone within the centre or from someone on the outside as the minister contends, how did the militant walk out into the streets without his trousers and without anybody noticing him? How does a 'trouserless' man hail a cab or melt into a crowd and make good his escape? Also how can the minister be so sure that he did not have any outside help?
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Meanwhile in Indonesia: Jakarta Court Sentences Key Militant To 15 Years In Prison

Singapore Materially Rich, Spiritually Poor

Singapore is materially rich but spiritually poor -- and the government is partly to blame, one of the city-state's most prominent authors says.

Catherine Lim, also a political commentator, is one of a very few to publicly criticise the government in Southeast Asia's most economically advanced society.

Lim said that while Singapore is consistently ranked high in various surveys on material measures, such as business friendliness and economic achievement, the standings are reversed when other factors are considered.

"Press freedom, happiness and even love life and romance and so on, Singapore is ranked very low," Lim said in an interview with AFP.

"Maybe it leads to some questions. Are we achieving all this material prosperity at the cost of something? Soul, spirit, heart, senses, whatever you want to call it?"

She said the government's tight political control is partly to blame for a lack of happiness among the city-state's 4.6 million people.

"If there were less of a climate of fear... we would be a happier society," she said.

Singapore is one of the most politically stable countries in the region and has become the base for thousands of foreign firms.

The country's leaders say its tough laws against dissent and other political activity are necessary to ensure such stability which has helped it achieve economic success.

It is illegal, for example, to hold a public gathering of five or more people in Singapore without a permit, meaning demonstrations seldom occur.

Singapore's leaders maintain that Western-style liberal democracy is not suitable for the tiny, multi-racial nation which has been ruled by the People's Action Party since 1959.

Lim said the government is doing much better than others in helping to deal with "material issues", including rising global food prices.

"This is a very pro-active government... a very pragmatic, problem-solving leadership," the Malaysian-born Lim, 66, said.

"The problem is in the other areas, political and social liberties that we don't hear much of here in Singapore."

Lim, who has lived in the city-state since 1967, spoke to AFP on the sidelines of a conference on The New Science of Happiness and Well-being, where she was invited to speak, and which ended Thursday.


Nine in 10 people stressed

Paris based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranked the city-state at 146 out of 168 nations, lower than Zimbabwe at 140, on a global index of press freedom released last year.

Singapore has also placed at the lower end in global surveys of sex frequency and satisfaction.

A recent poll by advertising firm Grey Group found that nine in 10 people living in Singapore said they were stressed.

Singaporeans are not "unhappy in the real sense of the word as in poverty-stricken countries", Lim said, but they seem to feel something is missing to complete their happiness. "We need more time to relax. Singaporeans are always talking about pressure. We make money, but hey, we don't have the leisure to spend our money."

Lim has written more than nine collections of short stories, five novels and a book on poems. Her works have been published internationally.

Last year she also turned to the Internet, after the pro-government Straits Times refused to publish one of her commentaries, her website says.

The newspaper had, for 13 years, published her commentaries even though they were critical of the government, she wrote on the website.

But in September it rejected one on "the need for a political opening up", the website says. The Today daily also refused to publish it, forcing her to go online, she says on the website.

Direct criticism of the government is rare in Singapore's mainstream media, forcing dissatisfied Singaporeans to resort to the web to express their views. (ANTARA News)
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