By Xinhua,
Singapore : Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Tuesday that top home affairs officials should not be automatically removed or punished just because security lapses allowed a top terror to escape a prison.
He made this point in a ministerial statement in Parliament on the escape of Muslim terror suspect Mas Selamat Kastari.
He said that while the government must admit its mistakes openly and honestly, Singapore should not encourage a culture where officials resign whenever something goes wrong on their watch, or encourage witch-hunts.
“We must admit our mistakes openly and honestly, put them right, and act against those who have been culpable,” Lee said.
He also reaffirmed his confidence in Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs minister Wong Kan Seng, as well as the top management of Wong’s ministry.
He expressed satisfaction that they had taken the correct remedial and disciplinary action, and that Wong and top management were not to blame for the escape.
The Home Affairs Ministry charges the Internal Security Department, which runs the Whitley Road Detention Center from which Mas Selamat escaped on Feb. 27.
The escape triggered a month-long islandwide manhunt in which police, the armed forces searched the city-state’s forests.
The Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng on Monday gave a detailed account on the escape of Mas Selamat, who once planned to hijack an airplane and crash it into Singapore’s Changi airport.
The report showed that Mas Selamat had escaped from a ventilation window in the toilet which did not have grilles.
Lee said the government’s aim is to try and do things right the first time and urged Singaporeans not to over-react to one bad incident, as it could lead to going overboard in trying to solve a problem.
“I think it’s true that Singaporeans have very high expectations of their government and therefore whenever there’s a lapse, they take it very seriously,” he said, adding that “But the last thing we need is a witch hunt which would damage and demoralize our intelligence and security agencies.”