S'poreans get A+ for response on Mas Selamat's escape: Swee Say

THE response of Singaporeans to the escape of Mas Selamat Kastari, a Jemaah Islamiah (JI) leader, received an A+ on Tuesday.

Minister Lim Swee Say, who described the escape as a test in inter-racial cohesion, said Singaporeans passed it 'with flying colours'.

He said people worked as one, without any finger-pointing, to search for the former chief of the Singapore JI cell.

'Did they take a position based on their racial or religious groups and draw the line? They did not,' he pointed out.

Mr Lim, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, was speaking to about 250 grassroots and community leaders at an event that underlines Singapore's unrelenting effort to maintain racial harmony.

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the above article in the straits times is just too tantalising to pass on, and as such warrants another errant post on an insanely blustery tuesday evening.

isnt it amazing how our leaders can see the silver lining in every grey looming cloud? and how our conduct could be rated at times like this, and be given an outstanding academic grade at that? and tell me if this isn't the quintessential thing e gahmen excels best at: skirt the burning questions on everyone's mouth, bask in the prolonged glory of hosting the youth olympics, take time out to commend the citizens on their exemplary behaviour (presumably to fill the newspaper void that shld have long been occupied by headlines lauding the successful capture of mas selamat by our armed forces), all while acting blissfully oblivious to the slamming by newspapers all over the world.

oh come on, give me a break. flying colours, A+. reading that made me cringe like anything. dun get me wrong. i sure am worried for everyone's safety for as long as that guy remains uncaught. and i do recognise e fact that racial cohesion is something that has helped preserve the current status quo in e country, which might otherwise have escalated into smth far worse and uncontrollable elsewhere. but to go tis far in patting oneself on the back is just something that doesnt seem to be of much use (especially since e govt admits not being sure about how he got away), and might draw more ire from e ppl and presses instead.

on a side and somewhat-impertinent note, 'selamat' means 'safe' in malay, so let's just pray that no one's safety is compromised while that fugitive is lurking around .