Sunday, April 3, 2011

Maid for Our Army: Manhunt now on for individuals in the SAF Maid story

Where did they go?: This is the footpath off Bedok Rise used by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) soldier, believed to be a full-time National Serviceman (NSF), and a woman carrying a fullpack, believed to be his domestic helper, who appeared in that iconic image (please scroll down). To the right of this footpath is the public housing estate which is home to an NSF who made headlines in 2007, Dave Teo.


Plain clothes officers believed to be from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) combed a housing estate in Bedok on Saturday (2 April'11) for the individuals in the infamous picture of a maid carrying a fullpack - but failed to find their targets.

The officers gathered along Bedok Rise, which is near the Tanah Merah MRT station, for a quick debrief yesterday evening and were observed by this blogger. The group stood out in the quiet estate because I have seen police surveillance teams in action and somehow sensed the group did not fit in with the streetscape.

One officer was overheard updating an unnamed party via mobilephone that there were x targets for the day and the maid at one premises was not in.

What gave the game away was an A4 size colour photocopy of two pictures in a local newspaper story that compared the real picture with a fake image of the anonymous soldier, believed to be a full-time National Serviceman (NSF), and a woman whom netizens believe is his domestic helper. Pictures in the 90C story were enlarged and printed in portrait format, possibly to serve as a handy reference for the officers. (By uncanny coincidence, I used the same picture as reference but saved an image of the newspaper article on my mobilephone. I felt it was more discrete as observers would think I was checking my SMS messages whenever I looked at the image on the phone.)

It was surreal being at the spot where the infamous images were taken and the sense of frustration stemmed from not knowing where the soldier was. A sense of being almost within reach, yet not quite there. That said, I thank friends of this blog for all the tipoffs. :-)

The pictures caused intense debate in Singapore this past week as they showed how one soldier can sully the SAF's image by displaying behaviour which Singaporeans viewed as unsoldierly.

As of late Saturday evening, Senang Diri believes the Singaporean Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) and SAF investigators had yet to verify the identities of the two individuals in the picture. The numberplates of the private cars used by the suspected stakeout teams were noted by this blogger.

It is interesting to note that the location of the stakeout is literally round the corner from the home of another infamous NSF, Dave Teo, who ran away from camp with his SAR-21 assault rifle and some bullets in 2007. The Bedok South point block flat which he shared with his grandmother and cousins can be seen from the footpath along which MINDEF/SAF's latest bugbear was photographed. Dave Teo was tracked down and arrested by police officers from the crack Special Tactics and Rescue (STAR) unit.

Manhunts in densely-populated Singapore are difficult to execute.

In March 2004, hundreds of SAF soldiers and Singapore Police Force officers were deployed to Pulau Tekong (Singapore's largest offshore island) to hunt down three suspected robbers who landed on the island from Malaysia's Johor state. The fugitives were eventually found by Gurkha police officers.

In February 2008, terror suspect Mas Selamat Kastari walked out of a high security detention centre. He was apprehended by Malaysian police in Johor in April the following year.

17 comments:

  1. Wouldn't it be easier if they check the database to find all NSF living around the area and in Units/Camps that requires book in/book out in number 4?

    At least it will help narrow down the search :)

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  2. I'm just wondering how much time and resources, not to mention the weekends burnt by those guys from SIB and SAFPU are being wasted on this wild goose chase.

    Why not use the furour from this incident to re-evaluate what it means to serve NS and to look at the SAF core values system again (which I feel currently is either paid lip service to, or not followed at all by many in uniform)...

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  3. I think it's silly and completely misses the point to pin the blame on one NSF. He's representative of a broader and deeper malaise. Singling him out and punishing him doesn't even scratch the surface of the issues revealed by this incident. If this is the mentality and the principles of MINDEF/SAF management, to me, it signals a gloomier prognosis of things to come.

    ...And last...I hope this is not an April Fool's joke. Not funny...

    Eric

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  4. Dear Eric,
    April Fool's was on 1 April. The comment reminds me of a story I wrote for the 90 cents newspaper some years ago about the last flight of the A-4 Super Skyhawks in Singapore.

    It appeared on 1 April 2005 and some readers thought it was a joke as MINDEF/SAF had not said anything. I won a tee shirt of an SAF unit from an Army officer who made a bet against me when I informed him it wasn't a joke and he insisted it was.

    This post is no joke.

    Cheers,
    David

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  5. "The numberplates of the private cars used by the suspected stakeout teams were noted by this blogger."
    Private cars? SAF using private cars? like what cars? got numbers? Maybe wed 4D numbers will strike. ^^

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  6. "The numberplates of the private cars used by the suspected stakeout teams were noted by this blogger."

    Yeah David. Im just really being curious but, why do people do this? Noting down the numbers, that is.

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  7. Hi Mr. Boey,

    Yes, I'm aware April Fool's on 1 April. Every year on the same date, no less.

    My mistake was to miss when the investigation was conducted. To that, I apologize.

    I didn't assume the date of publication will be the date of investigation.

    For me, I still find it incredulous that public resources are committed to hunting down the NSF. I find it hard to believe that it's not someone's warped idea of a joke.

    But thank you for pointing out that it's not a joke.


    Eric

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  8. Gotta hunch that the poor maid has cut her hair, on instructions of her frantic employer

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  9. this is reflective of the Singaporean civil service - waste of time and effort to make a show as always

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  10. Please laa.. they couldn't even find a limp escapee with bazillion of officers..

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  11. Yea, why are they wasting public resources on this? I mean at worse what can they do to the NSF? make him sign extra? Technically what he did isn't even that serious.
    Really a timely warning and education on these matters to the NSFs and their parents would be a way better use of resources.

    To that other poster who ask why people note down car numbers. Well in this case it would be to see if they (the investigators) are back =)

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  12. Look out for someone in Tundung & army boots...and can forget about the coastline which according to WCS -- is very long

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  13. Its gonna be public shaming when he's caught, i bet a lot of SAF personnel will like to see this brat caught and shamed.

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  14. that photo that telling all singapore citizen to vote for the p8p gahmen... else your wife and daughter will become maid in other countries and need to carry their army backpack instead...

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  15. Dave, do you mind if I reference this article?

    -Edmund, Singapore

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  16. Hi Edmund,
    Reference this article where? Can email me if you prefer private chit chat.

    Cheers,
    David

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  17. aiyoh, this NSF dun runaway with SAR-21 lah so why so many kaypoh and surveillance team to find him. Every human being made mistake OK? Better look for potential JI operative than tailing that poor chap!

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