Sunday 9 March 2008

Mas Selamat bin Kastari

The news is all about him. The orange alert was released by Interpol followed by a red alert. His pictures are everywhere. Police Special Forces and Singapore Guards were activated for the biggest manhunt ever. But what do all these mean to me? Pretty much nothing… until last Tuesday. It was nearing 5.30 and everyone in my workshop was preparing for the RO and fallout. Then suddenly PC called and said that we need to do OT. Apparently the reason was Mas Selamat. Many Land rovers are utilized in the search for him, and there are insufficient vehicles for training purposes.

Despite the explanation that the higher authority has conjured up, the morale is super low. Can’t they just inform us earlier? There were no spares in the workshop too, and we had to go down NSDC to collect them. But what to do, who asks us to be in the SAF?

We still carried out work despite all the grumbling. Even the clerks went down to the workshop, but just to practice their acting skill. The four vehicles that we were supposed to finish by that night proved to be full of faults, and up until 10 pm, we could not pass out all. All the NSFs like me totally gave up. In fact, we began gathering around the smoking corner and sighing on our bad luck. We wondered how and why the escape of a single fugitive could nearly cause the mobilization of the entire SAF.

Finally we were allowed to leave, and thanks to Xian Cong’s mum, I managed to reach home at around 11.30. At that time, I truly felt the power and influence of Mas Selamat.

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