The government may think that satiating citizens' idle curiosity serves no purpose; after all, the man has already escaped. Instead, they and their loyal media have played up the fact that an "independent" commission of inquiry has been set up, and that this 3-member commission will eventually get the answers. I noted however that there were no promises that the answers will be released to the public.

Yet, being transparent and satiating citizens' curiosity is not purposeless; it is crucial for credibility. The more the government stonewalls, the more people will wonder what they're trying to hide. We begin to wonder whether even the little information that has come out has been merely for the purpose of saving face, and if the chief motivation is to save face, how reliable is anything they have said?

This is very corrosive to the trust between government and people.

As P N Balji said in his editorial, the information vacuum risks being filled with all sorts of speculation. This will tend to add confusion to an already difficult mission.

* * * * *

 
The Straits Times' front page headline of Monday, 3 March said "Police believe he acted alone [and] he's still in Singapore."

Yet, in the same edition of the newspaper, it was reported that the Criminal Investigation Department, which (I believe) runs the Whitley Road Detention Centre from where Mas Selamat escaped, would conduct an "internal probe" into "whether 'criminal wrongdoing' was involved." So, they're not so sure that Mas Selamat had no inside help [3].

Then on Monday night, the online edition of the Straits Times had a big story about boat patrols off the coast checking on all vessels [4]. Thus, they do think he may be trying to escape from Singapore. What makes them think he has not already got away?

Hence, the Straits Times' headline, courtesy of a Police statement -- that he acted alone and is still in Singapore -- may be no more than wishful thinking.

In fact, the longer he stays at large, the more likely Mas Selamat is getting help. It's really difficult, I would think, to be hiding all alone. Where would one get food?

As each day passes without success, it gets likelier that someone is concealing him. Actually, the thought that he had assistance crossed my mind quite early. Admittedly, it's speculation in the absence of information, but I thought it strange that despite a massive manhunt in the secondary forests and housing estates around the detention centre in the first night, they found absolutely no sign of him at all. There was not even a mention in the press of any trail (though lack of a press mention doesn't mean very much given the government's refusal to provide much information).

If he was running through the bush, tracker dogs should have picked up a scent. In which direction did the scent go? We haven't been told, but from the way the search was conducted here and there in no contiguous way, it appears they never found a scent trail at all. The massive searches at Malcolm Road and later Bukit Batok were due to reported sightings of a limping man, not to sniffer dogs pointing the way.

Scent trails are often lost when a person jumps into water, or into a vehicle. There is no river near the detention centre, so I think the likelihood of him getting into a vehicle is more probable. Since till now, no one has reported a vehicle hijacked or stolen in the area on that day, does that mean there was a vehicle waiting for him?

If someone is helping and hiding him, many troubling questions are raised. It means there had to be prior communication to organise the escape. It means he has contacts in the Jemaah Islamiyah movement that our authorities don't know of.

(And if we later find out that he has indeed left Singapore within the first few days of escaping, you can take it that he almost surely had help.)

The idea that the underground network of Jemaah Islamiyah is still active is an uncomfortable one, with serious implications for Singapore's security. So for all our sakes, I hope I am wrong and that we find him soon.

© Yawning Bread