Sunday, May 11, 2014

Waiting for the terrorist bomb

On the front page today, the third time vandals struck at our trains when they were 'safely' in the depot.

One day, it wouldn't be vandals but a ticking time or remote control bomb.

Already terrorists who came to know about this are kicking themselves for missing the opportunity to the vandals. And a good place to enter would be via the land crossing between Malaysia and Singapore because we could not keep up the vigilance. Without better technology we find it very difficult to maintain the trade off  between security and speed of moving people and goods at the check points. Look, there is no problem buying contraband cigarettes here. Do you think they came in via the airport and port?

This place also do not understand safety especially the construction sector. Count the SAF too. Police believe they could replace boots on the ground with technology which is actually true but did they ask themselves if they know how to get it right? Who is the reckless fool that was thinking of putting foreigners in blue uniforms? This is different from the targeted approach the French are using to cope with massive Chinese tourists arrivals.

We have lost our common sense.

Of course commuters could boycott the trains but surely that is not happening until a bomb actually goes off. It is a question of when.

I was wrong earlier. If I were a smart terrorist I would wait for the people to get fed up with inadequate security, and in general for confidence in the government to decline. The objective of a bomb goes far beyond physical and human damage. The idea is to destroy public and business confidence. It is useless if a bomb makes the people stronger and more resilient. For a practical lesson, they only need to look to London. Look at how money continue to pour into that city despite the attack.

Terrorists are waiting for our vulnerable moment and at this rate, we are heading down that path. Are we going to reward their patience?


2 comments:

  1. Indeed it is getting scary. Gone are the days when we were in national service and they drummed into us to be vigilant while we moved in public spaces. These days we would see "tired" NS persons sleeping away or listening into their earphones on the trains and buses. If we don't get our young people to be the eyes and ears in the public places, do we expect to rely on CCTVs and our "inadequate" police force??

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  2. I am really really curious about how the vandal's got in? The similarity between the Toa Payoh block suggests that the police is right at this moment giving the 5 17 years old, the 3rd degree on suspicion that they could be linked.

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