Now for something that has nothing to do with the ooxml comedy, but about another tragi-comedy being played out in Singapore – that of the missing detainee.

So, HOW did Mas Selamat escape? Our most expedient and inciseful of media has yet to reach that all important question. They have tried to cover Who, What, When and Why. Perhaps they are dyslysic like some of our million dollar ministers and they are seeing a HOW as as WOH!

Granted, I have not read nor watched local media on this tragi-comedy, but from my conversations with family and friends, it does appear that the real hard questions have not been asked – HOW did he escape. I am further tickled by the almost instantaneous “I am sorry” by wks. I think, if he really means that, he should do the right thing and resign. Any decent democracy will have had that happen. But, not so for these chaps – we are not a western liberal democracy, let alone a decent one.

But never mind wks and company resigning. There are serious questions that have yet to be answered. I have been silent about this because I was visiting the US when this happened and my link back was two SMSes from Singtel/Police about this. OK, so they are trying to reach far and wide. I did not bother to check the local media’s website (like who needs to log in into straitstimes.com anyway), so all my information was flowing in from friends and blogs.

As a reservist, I have an insight into how things work in my country and the longer the silence on HOW, the more I feel there is a massive coverup.

So, here’s a list of possible hows – arrived at with the help of some really young minds who have watched one too many 24 episodes:
a) Mas did not actually escape, he was killed (yeah, yeah, accidentally, wink, wink), and it took four hours to dispose the body
b) Mas had a tiny transmitter planted into his body somewhere and then was let to escape so that ISD, CIA and others can track him
c) Mas is actually still inside. The news is to test the amount of chatter that will be generated and helps ISD/CIA to assess
d) Mas was exchanged for some other person(s) and MHA/wks is embarassed to admit to it

So, there you have it. The HOW is explained within those scenarios.

Postscript: just realized that Cherian has a post on his blog that asks the same question.