ST April 5, 2008Let's put it this way. MM Lee is an extremely prominent government leader. Now a terrorist has run away from prison - no matter how you look at it, this is a very major mess-up. One of MM Lee's key tasks is therefore to manage public perception of this matter.
JI MAN MAS SELAMAT'S ESCAPE
Guards were negligent, says MM
His message: Those who think nothing can go wrong are being complacent
By Sue-Ann Chia & Goh Chin Lian
FUGITIVE Mas Selamat Kastari was 'an escape artist' who had evaded arrest many times, and Singapore's security officers knew this, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said yesterday.
Yet, the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist leader was able to lull his minders at the Whitley Road Detention Centre into believing that they had him under control, before he gave them the slip.
'When you are complacent in handling a wily detainee, then you have been negligent,' Mr Lee told The Straits Times in an e-mail interview.
He responded to questions on the issue of complacency for today's Insight feature which takes off from his earlier comments on Mas Selamat's disappearance.
He said last month that the break-out was a 'very severe lesson in complacency'.
Mas Selamat, 47, who had planned to crash a plane into Changi Airport, escaped from Internal Security Department custody on Feb 27. He is still on the run.
The Government has promised a full account of how he escaped, after a three-member panel completes its investigations.
In answering questions posed by The Straits Times, Mr Lee addressed the issue of complacency among citizens, saying: 'Anyone who believes nothing can or will go wrong in Singapore is living in a make-believe world.'
He said Singaporeans are being complacent when they believe that the Government will take care of all security matters.
MPs and political observers interviewed for the Insight feature said decades of peace and prosperity could have caused some Singaporeans to believe the Government had everything under control and nothing could go wrong.
How did complacency creep in? Some observers like former MP Augustine Tan blamed indifference or lack of understanding of the Government's workings.
Others felt the Government was partly to blame.
People's Action Party MP Lim Wee Kiak called complacency a 'side-effect' of an overly successful Government and civil service.
'This has bred a dependency mentality in our population who will blame the civil service and Government if any of their needs are not met,' he noted.
But MM Lee disagreed that the Government deserved to be blamed. He said: 'Complacency sets in when a people have not suffered any shock or setback for a long time.'
Hence, his warnings against complacency over the years, 'because most people believe that bad things will happen to others, not to themselves'.
It seems to me that MM Lee is opting for a fairly sophisticated communications strategy to do this. He's striving to place Mas Selamat's escape in a much wider broader context - about the complacency not of his government, but of the entire nation of 4,000,000 Singapore citizens.
Thus MM Lee wants to say that yes, there was a bungle-up at the detention centre; BUT no, it was not really the government's fault (he'll gloss quickly over this part); INSTEAD let's talk about the wider, more-important and very urgent issue of national complacency (that means you, me, Tan Ah Kow and the neighbourhood kopi tiam man - not Wong Kan Seng).
And then the government PR machinery will launch into the "broad complacency" theme - and discuss our complacency about our economic competitiveness; our water supplies; our lack of natural resources; and of our young generation of Singapore citizens who never experienced the racial riots of the 1950s etc.
With perhaps just a little lip service to the real matter - Mas Selamat and MHA's complacency, in February 2008.
(Remember? Or were you successfully distracted already).
Now why did I say that I think MM Lee will be angry? Basically, this communication strategy is quite elaborate. It is not that easy to push this one through. No doubt - MM Lee will have the nation-building cooperation of the nation-building press. But technically speaking, it will still not easy to push this one through; it requires quite a lot of skilful spin on the local media's part.
And the Strait Times really did a bad job. This particular article failed to sell. It is just outright illogical & unpersuasive. Yes, many Singaporeans are dumb enough to be duped by anything. But many other Singaporeans who aren't even particularly bright will go, "Harrrh? What is MM Lee trying to say? Mas Selamat run away, is MY fault arh??"
Yes, that is exactly what the article is trying to say - see these excerpts:
He said last month that the break-out was a 'very severe lesson in complacency'.When you break down the message like that, it becomes quite obvious how nonsensical it is. Of course citizens should expect their government to take care of a security matter like detaining Mas Selamat - were you going to entrust that task to the security guards at your private condo.
...... Mr Lee addressed the issue of complacency among citizens, saying: 'Anyone who believes nothing can or will go wrong in Singapore is living in a make-believe world.'
He said Singaporeans are being complacent when they believe that the Government will take care of all security matters.
... People's Action Party MP Lim Wee Kiak called complacency a 'side-effect' of an overly successful Government and civil service.
... MM Lee disagreed that the Government deserved to be blamed.
The article is just doing a very bad job of subliminal persuasion, that is all. MM Lee will be very disappointed with the Straits Times.