It’s been about 54 days since Mas Selamat’s infamous prison break from the detention center. Today the Committee of Inquiry finally released their findings on how he did it.
In short, there were three key factors to his escape.
1. Ventilation window in toilet had no grilles.
2. Guards were negligent.
3. Fence had a physical weakness that made escape easy.
Ventilation window in toilet had no grilles. Yes, you read it. The detention center where we lock up dangerous terrorists had no grilles securing that particular toilet window. According to a report by Channel Newsasia:
“The COI found that during renovations in 2007, grilles had not been fixed to that particular toilet window due to a misunderstanding between the ISD and the contractor.”
Adding to this, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said that it was “bad judgment” on the superintendent’s part. I think “bad judgment” is severely understating it. And that’s not all, according to the above report, the superintendent asked the contractor to saw off the window handle as a security measure in May 2007, nine months before said incident (did no one notice that something is missing?). Let’s just take a few seconds to reconsider this.
Did someone forget to brief the superintendents what the word “detention” means? It means we don’t leave toilets without grilles. It means we don’t saw handles off grille-less windows. It means someone is paid as a superintendent with the tax money but puts in less brain activity than a comatose goldfish.
So, strike one – Contractor 1, Stupidintendent 0.
Then the guards were allowed the dude to use the urinal with the toilet door closed. Is it just me who believes that that the bars of a prison cell is designed to ensure that the inmates are under surveillance all the time? Surely this is in the syllabus when guards undergo training no? Maybe not because this is so common sense – its like a mom keeping a toddler in an enclosed box, rather than a cot just to give the kid a little more privacy.
Strike two – Common sense 1, Guards 0.
Lastly, the man (who had a limp on one leg by the way) managed to climb a the window ledge, through the window, down a water pipe, scaled the roof of an enclosed staircase and walkway, jumped over the section of a converged double perimeter fence and headed towards the expressway. Mind you, all these whilst two gurkhas and a special duty operative are waiting outside, in the toilet wondering why he’s taking so long.
No one was watching the CCTV. In fact, they even installed motion-activated CCTV just so it helps relief human labour monitoring but… it wasn’t operational yet.
Finally, strike three – Limping man 1, Two gurkhas and one duty operative waiting in toilet -3
I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m poking fun at everyone involved in this, and I’ll be the first to admit that this is no laughing matter. But its absolutely ludicrous how this incident can happen. I’m glad the government is being so open about this and its crucial that we know how to prevent this from happening again.
But I really can’t help but think that its about time we seriously reexamine the security setup in our detention centers. It’s just unimaginable how an escape like this was executed so easily. A limping man aided by utter negligence and pure complacency.
I hope the writers of Prison Break read this and take it as material on their next season. I’d like to see Michael Scofield pull this off.
Now I just hope we find this man soon and put him back where he belongs.
