Capture of Mas Selamat: Why public not told earlier

May 8, 2009

Capture of Mas Selamat

Why public not told earlier

		Many Singaporeans were surprised and elated over news of his arrest, which was splashed on the front page of The Straits Times on Friday.

THE Singapore government did not inform the public earlier of the capture of wanted terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari because of the need for secrecy, said Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng on Friday.

It may also compromise operations and jeopardise the sources of information, said Mr Wong, who is also Home Affairs Minister. He said the same applied to other terrorist arrests earlier.

The leader of the Singapore Jemaah Islamiah terror network, who has been on the run for over a year after bolting from the Whitley Detention Centre on Feb 27 last year, was nabbed in the outskirts of Johnor Baru six weeks ago on April 1 and is now being held by the Malaysian authorities for interrogation.

In further comments issued later on Friday on why the government did not announce his arrest earlier, a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs explained that 'there were larger operational and security considerations at stake.'

The ministry said the Malaysian Special Branch and Singapore's Internal Security Department were 'not prepared to go public on the information until a time when it was operationally appropriate to reveal the details.

'Premature disclosure would compromise on-going investigations. We do not issue press releases on arrest until after ISD has completed its investigations and operations.

'For example, sometimes, intelligence obtained from interviews of arrestees may put us on the trail of other terrorists. In such instances, premature public revelation of the first arrest would cause the other terrorists to flee, and compromise our ability to capture them.'

Many Singaporeans were surprised and elated over news of his arrest, which was splashed on the front page of The Straits Times on Friday. But many also questioned why his capture was not made public earlier. Some even quipped that the arrest might have been a belated April Fool's joke.

The Home Affairs Ministry confirmed the arrest on Friday morning, as did the Malaysian government.

Within hours after the story went up on straitstimes.com, more than 100 comments were posted by readers.

Wrote forum member merrayell: 'He is the most wanted man in Singapore, but it took the police to release his capture to the public only after one month...shouldn't they beat the gong and announce that Mas Selamat has been captured'

Asked another member, righting-things: 'The news scoop seems to be just based on foreign intelligence and confirmed by Malaysian authorities. Where's the word from our very own authorities?'

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