TEMASEK REVIEW
The MRT graffiti saga which rocked the entire nation took
another twist yesterday when it was revealed that SMRT took more
than 48 hours to lodge a police report.
A Swiss FT was hauled up to Court yesterday for trepassing into
a MRT depot at Changi and vandalizing one of the trains by spraying
graffiti on one side of the carriage.
(1)It also transpired that
he had an accomplice with him Briton McKoy Banos who has since left
Singapore.
The security breach allegedly took place on 16 May 2010, but a
police report was made only on 19 May 2010 which contradicts an
official statement by SMRT that it “reported the breach to the
police immediately when it was discovered.”
When queried by the Straits Times, SMRT Head of Security Mr Choy
Kin Chong declined to comment on the time lapse, saying that “more
security staff had been deployed to increase patrol at its
depots.”
Singapore’s biggest security lapse since the dramatic escape of
famed terrorist Mas Selamat Kasteri two years ago drew widespread
concerns from both law-makers and Singaporeans who wondered what
the consequences might be had the vandals been terrorists
instead.
GPC chairman for Home Affairs and Law, Mr Alvin Yeo was quick to jump to the
defence of the Swiss FT:
“MRT trains are potential soft targets. (2)I dare say that the suspects probably did it in
the spirit of fun and adventure and not for something more
sinister. But this could have been something more harmful than just
graffiti,” he was quoted as saying in the Straits
Times.
Netizens were equally flabbergasted at how SMRT could allow the
security breach to go unnoticed for so long.
Eddie Chin commented:
“This is a real security concern. If someone can sneak into
an MRT depot and spend a sizeable amount of time spraying the
graffiti, he would have enough time to plant bombs on many
different trains. I wonder what our Minister for Home Affairs going
to say about this, that he’s doing a harmless prank so it’s
ok?”
Salihin added:
“Worse of all is that SMRT actually deployed the vandalized
train with the huge graffiti. Let’s not ask how they actually
secure their depots when their staff cant even notice a huge
graffiti on their train.”
(3)There are no immediate comments
from the Home Affairs Ministry or its Minister Wong Kan Seng
yet.
Maybe they are keeping a distance as far as possible from
the incident out of fears of re-igniting Singaporeans’ memories of
Mas Selamat.
(1)Another Briton was involved and has left the country? Are we
going to see another case similar to that of the Romanian
diplomat? Would MFA be able to bring this Briton back for
investigation? Let alone punishment?
(2)If it was some other fellows from other countries
(like Iran or Syria) making the infiltration (and not
an angmoh from Switzerland), I wonder if the Alvin Yeo dares
to say
"the suspects probably did it in
the spirit of fun and adventure and not for something more
sinister". If a potential
terrorist was to make the infiltration and did something nasty
(such as planting a bomb), he should top it up with graffiti on the
MRT. If he's caught just say that he did it in the spirit of fun
and adventure and not for something sinster. Just hope that he
can fool the others so that there's enough time for
the bomb to explode.
(3)I think we should not expect any comments from our DPM Wong.
Remember PM Lee questioned Low Thia Kiang how far along the line
did he want the heads to roll (something like this when Low asked
in parliament whether WKS should quit to hold resposibility for MSK
escape) PM Lee even questioned LTK if he should resigned too since
he's the one who picked WKS as Minister For Home Affairs.
I predict that WKS would soon announce his retirement from
politics. PAP is already facing lots of problems with voters over
many issuses and they definitely wont want to carry another
extremely heavy burden in this coming GE.
