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$1 Million Bounty For Capture Of Mas Selamat

Jessica Lau

New Member
I am left pondering the rationale behind the seeming government endorsement of the $1 million cash reward (supposedly from two anonymous businessmen) for anyone with information that leads to the capture of terror fugitive Mas Selamat Kastari.

If you may recall, a private company had earlier made news sometime this year for putting out a reward of $50K for the capture of the escaped terrorist. Several other individuals and local companies had also offered rewards in an attempt to help the authorities track down the fugitive.

Yet, a spokesman for the government had stressed at that time that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) did NOT think Singaporeans needed the incentive of a reward to help the country for a matter as serious as this.

So why the about-turn now?

Surely, cash offer or not, many Singaporeans have indeed been offering suggestions to the authorities and reporting suspicious Mas Selamat look-alikes.

My view is that the offer of cash reward is more sophisticated than ensuring continued public awareness and vigilance to offer assistance to the authorities.

It not only tempts Mas Selamat’s harbourers, but more importantly, it poses questions into the suspicious mind of Mas Selamat that he can no longer be sure that whoever is harbouring him at the moment (assuming that someone is indeed providing assistance to evade arrest) will not turn him in.

It forces Mas Selamat to be on the move and ultimately leaves footprints for authorities to hunt him down.

Therefore, key to the hunt of the fugitive is the continued tight security at all checkpoints and the continued vigilance of all Singaporeans to spot Mas Selamat.

However, with the announcement of the bounty, the authorities must seriously address some utterly embarrassing situations:

1) What if the informer, who is now coming forward to offer information, had all this while been sympathetic to the fugitive’s situation?

2) What if the informer had provided assistance to the fugitive in one way or another to evade arrest?

3) What if the informer is a family member of Mas Selamat and ultimately the cash reward goes back to Mas Selamat?

4) What if the informer is linked to the JI or other regional terrorist groups and part of the broker to turn Mas Selamat in is that the cash reward goes to the terrorist grouping?

The above scenarios are just some of the possible knotty ones that the government must seriously think through. If you may recall, sometime in April 2008, MHA had put across the strong message - Do NOT even think of harbouring Mas Selamat; anyone caught aiding him will face imprisonment for life, or a jail term.

Should the harbourer-turn-informer be rewarded for his assistance to the Police? Or should he not be arrested and prosecuted for harbouring the fugitive?
 

Slider_72

Alfrescian
Loyal
Its all a cover-up. After realising that they cannot catch the bastard, and since they said earlier that should not use reward system to obtain info, now they are stuck. No choice but say that two anonymous businessmen offered the money. Who so stupid to offer their own money anonymously, especially since the money "donated" is not tax-exempt?

Maybe the "anonymous businessmen" are our dear Minister WKS and his crony forking out a small part of their performance bonus.
 

jerry

Alfrescian
Loyal
After realising that they cannot catch the bastard, and since they said earlier that should not use reward system to obtain info, now they are stuck. No choice but say that two anonymous businessmen offered the money.

Makes sense. There is a strong possibility that the above transpired.

Who so stupid to offer their own money anonymously, especially since the money "donated" is not tax-exempt?

This is even more convincing. We are not talking about $1,000 or $10,000. Split evenly it's a cool half a million dollars. Who would give away half a million dollars? Look like your theory has some weight.
 

peterlth

Alfrescian
Loyal
I think the chenghu cannot afford to tell the public that they are using tax payer money to fund the 1,000,000 reward. It will cause an uproar. WKS made a mistake, and the tax payers pay, cannot lah, PAP will lose their next election. Therefore, the best approach is to find a couple of 'anonymous business men' to fund the reward. Are there 'arrangement' between chenghu and the few anonymous business men? No body knows ....
 

Soundwave

Alfrescian
Loyal
I think the chenghu cannot afford to tell the public that they are using tax payer money to fund the 1,000,000 reward. It will cause an uproar. WKS made a mistake, and the tax payers pay, cannot lah, PAP will lose their next election. Therefore, the best approach is to find a couple of 'anonymous business men' to fund the reward. Are there 'arrangement' between chenghu and the few anonymous business men? No body knows ....

Actually WKS should offer the reward himself, it is not as if he cannot afford it. :rolleyes:
 

suteerak1099

Alfrescian
Loyal
do we even know for certain that MS is in fact a real person, or perhaps he was a fictional character from the start? even if he's a genuine person, its been so many wks, days, hours, minutes, seconds since his disappearance.

can we be certain that his aide can really conceal him so well within our shores? it takes approx 3-4hrs for any NSman to to go home (from any corner of the island), change to no4, bring his barang barang & report to camp. let's try to recall, how many hrs MS had from exit of whitley chalet, until the news was confirmed & broadcasted???

perhaps he had all the time in the world to limp to his choice of destination. as did ah-hao (huang na's case), as did m.vana (ex-football player wanted for match fixing)... n perhaps a whole list of other cold cases.
 

Pleasure_empire

Alfrescian
Loyal
Singapore so small and yet can let mas selamat escape ? U believe ?
Mas selamat now dunno in which level of hell or heaven...
Reward $1 million must be some kind of joke , Pls help the poor with the money man !
 

antehner

Alfrescian
Loyal
I nearly fell off my chair laughing when I read this on the papers. I think this case is an internal conspiracy?
 

american

Alfrescian
Loyal
I think the chenghu cannot afford to tell the public that they are using tax payer money to fund the 1,000,000 reward. It will cause an uproar. WKS made a mistake, and the tax payers pay, cannot lah, PAP will lose their next election. Therefore, the best approach is to find a couple of 'anonymous business men' to fund the reward. Are there 'arrangement' between chenghu and the few anonymous business men? No body knows ....

I tend to agree as you can never find anyone giving away $1 million for something that the goverment should be responsible.
 

slyer

Alfrescian
Loyal
this 1million is hard to earn. as hard as winning toto :biggrin: i wonder the anoymous donors are our dear cabinet ministers :rolleyes::biggrin:
 
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