Who will buy the chips? - Let's Form a Comittee

It's officially March 9, and it is now 11-years since the tragedy of Swift Lion took place in New Zealand. In the 11-years when I lost a good friend, I think most of us managed to live our lives in a full and very rich manner. I think most of us who lived through that incident have somehow managed to let the dead lie in peace and gone on. We've somehow even gone on to such an extent that visiting Ronnie's resting place is no longer part of an annual ritual that we once got involved in.

However, there are things from that incident that I can't forget. It was a moment in life when I became closer to a group of people than I thought ever could have. It was a moment when I saw people who really cared and people who didn't. One of the issues that I've become rather intreagued in is in the area of government accountaility. - Yes, it's the source of my disillusionment with this thing that governments believe to be a decision making process, which is in reality an excercise in doing nonsense - forming comittees.

In theory, comittees are supposed to solve issues. It is said that comittees allow a diverse range of opinions into something. However, in practice, comittees are an excercise in avoiding making decisions and more importantly, an excercise in avoiding responsability. Whenever you hear people talk about forming a comittee, you know that the individuals concerned are busy scrambling for a way to avoid taking responsability.

Governments throughout the world are infamous for their use of comittees. It helps them look active but actually helps them avoid needing to have things like.....courage and accountability. I suppose you could say that in a big country like the US of A, comittees are fine because this very big country needs space - you need the useless to feel used at other people's expenses while the rest of the world get's on with making things run. Government, as Americans have rightfully realised is a form of social welfare - a place where you place useless people that could be troublesome if they were left to rot in the real world.

In Singapore, we like to think that we are somewhat efficient, particuarly in the area of government.Our government thinks of itself as running a corporation - we've gone as far as to pay our Ministers and senior civil servants salaries that are competative with the private sector - after all, we need to lure the top brains away from places that contribute economic value like GE, JP Morgan, HP and Microsoft and bring them to the government of Singapore.

To be fair, the Singapore government does a pretty darn good job of running the show in Singapore. Economy ticks along nicely (7.6% annual growth - but we remain an economy of many transactions and few cheques), crime is low and the streets aer clean and green. But of late, I'm becomming a little disillusioned with things. Our leaders, whom at one stage could genuinely claim to be competent and caring for their people are becoming less so or at least appearing less so.

I go back to that incident all those years ago. Ammunition used for live firing was faulty and we lost two guys who could have ended living very rich and fulfilling lives. What did we do for them ....we formed a Comittee of Enquirey lead by someone outside the Ministry of Defense. Three months after the funeral, we found that the contractor in the USA outsourced the fuze manufacturing to China (there, we already knew the Chinese were suspect) and vowed not to use fuzes made from China. There you have it ...the two guys who died were just victims of iresponsible outsourcing by a careless supplier - if you think I'm being sarcastic here - just tell anyone in the Arty formation that you're scared of going live firing and that's what they'll tell you in not so many words.

Did anyone from the Singapore side ever claim responsability for not checking the ammunition they were buying? I mean our defense procurement guys, if you believe the Comittee, just didn't have the know-how or technology to check - - it is just a case of "human error" as one Young PAP man suggested. So, there you have it, the Chinese make shoddy fuzes that were commisioned by cheap and greedy Americans and sold to innocent Singaporeans who have all the technology to either make the fuze themselves or check on the quality of the product. But....if you believe the official line....shit happens and people die.........too bad it's not the hard working people who avoid responsability who die.

When it comes to Swift Lion, I am perhaps a bad commentator? But lets put life on the fast-forward mode. Now, here we are in the next millenium with more money and technology than we had 10-years ago and what do we get.

First we have a case of a young NSF who strolls out of an army camp with a loaded riffle, watches a movie in town and then shacks up in a hotel in the red light district. In the mean time, it takes a combined effort of the army and police over 24-hours to get hold of him.

So what do we do? The little shit gets slamemd into jail and we throw the book at him. Bad soldier! We can't have them walking around with riffles. Fair enough.....but did anyone ask how he managed to walk out with a riffle from an army camp? Did anyone ask why it took so long for the necessary authorities to respond? Obviously this half-wit who outwitted an army camp staffed with super-scale Cambride Educated schoolars is completly at fault.

Oh, before I forget.....one of our navy ships gets rammed by a tanker. The watch officer was charged (bad boy) but nobody seemed to ask how a navel ship equipped with the latest radars failed to detect a super tanker heading its way.

And now you have .....the Mas Selamat Affair. An unarmed man with a limp strolls out of a secure prison and remains at large after 10-days. The man, whom the government has lablled as a "Dangerous Terrorist" remains at large and undetected by 1000 policemen and a few hundred military troops and not to mention 6,000 community leaders on an island that people have described as a red dot.

In the mean time.....the Minister has said a sorry of sorts and guess what....a comittee is being formed to get back to us about what happened within a month. Well, let's just blame the guards for being stupid....but erm....if we have stupid guards .......how did they get to be in their position in the first place?

Mas Selmat has not killed anyone and I don't wish to give him the chance to do it. But he's fast becoming a source of ammusement for comedy starved Singaporeans. And the best part is he's giving us a good laugh at the government's expense (it's illegal to laugh at the government - it's only today when the Minister Mentor had to admit that it was not infalliable but you can't laugh at them).

Here are the things we are laughing at:

1 - An unarmed man with a limp strolls out of a secure prison and has evaded capture inspite the efforts of 1,000 policemen and 6,000 community leaders on an island known as a red dot. Erm.......how did that happen.....oh, human error....the Minister who approved the training of the prison staff and command as well as their technology....is well sorry ....what else do you want from this human error.

2 - The escapee is alegedly a psychotic and high dangerous terrorist who plots to blow-up important bits in Singapore. Yet, the government is telling us not to worry and they are committed to putting him back behind bars. Not sure how this works - dangerous terrorist on the lose but don't worry we have it under control, if only we knew where the bugger is.

Let's not talk about the exceedingly well paid minister doing what his private sector counterparts would do in his situation (resign). Nobody has called for the head of the man running the centre.

Contrast that with:

1 - when the School of Commando Training drowned a trainee, the Minister of Defense did his job and removed the Chief Commando Officer and the CO of School of Commando Training - even though they were far removed from the issue.

2 - when the Israeli's were caught off guard during the Yom Kipur War, Israeli PM, Golda Maier and Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan resigned. Yes, Israel eventually won and Moshe Dayan was by all accounts, a brilliant general - but he made a boo - boo that cost lived and so he resigned as an act of accountability.