This is my personal thoughts as I read about Mas Selamat Kastari.
No one take notice on the Jeemah Islamiah terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari during his detention days in Singapore after the Indonesian authorities handed him over to Singapore in 2006. Back then, most of us knew that most JI terrorist were all under arrest deserved to be in detention as they were dangerous men. That all we knew and now that Mas Selamat Kastari appeared daily in the news media and newspaper, we knew more about him.
He was the former leader of Jemaah Isalamiah terror network and had plotted to hijack a plane and crash it into Changi International Airport.
He is in headlines all over Singapore and known as Singapore’s most notorious man on the run since his escape from the Whitley Road Detention Centre at 4:05pm last Wednesday, being detained since 2006 under the ISA (Internal Security Act).
Mas Selamat had an ordinary childhood growing up in Kaki Bukit and led a typical carefree kampong life, playing football and marbles and flying kites with his neighbors. He attended English language school and did not show interests in radical religious beliefs. He known to be calm and soft-spoken and his stubborn nature are such that he cannot accept other’s opinions.
He was the former leader of Jemaah Isalamiah terror network and had plotted to hijack a plane and crash it into Changi International Airport.
He is in headlines all over Singapore and known as Singapore’s most notorious man on the run since his escape from the Whitley Road Detention Centre at 4:05pm last Wednesday, being detained since 2006 under the ISA (Internal Security Act).
Mas Selamat had an ordinary childhood growing up in Kaki Bukit and led a typical carefree kampong life, playing football and marbles and flying kites with his neighbors. He attended English language school and did not show interests in radical religious beliefs. He known to be calm and soft-spoken and his stubborn nature are such that he cannot accept other’s opinions.
He was born in Jan 23, 1961 in Kendal a province in Central Java, his family migrated to Singapore when he was a young boy. The youngest of the eight or nine siblings, a normal kid and he played a lot like any kids. He was not weird and he did not spout any nonsense.
Like any young man, he likes to have a family with wife and kids but the wrong step he took when he joined the JI in 1990. There in JI, perhaps I saying perhaps in this organization the leaders knew how to brain-wash their members in believing that they can be extra-ordinary human beings who can anything and importantly the leaders recognized their ability.
If one grows up in the family of eight or nine siblings, I am sure Mas Selamat must have been neglected by his parents and his picks up his character developments during his childhood plays in schools and neighbors. He is a nobody and when in JI organization, leader supposing can spot a nobody who wanted to be some body, why not make use of him to fulfill their organization mission and objectives. In the JI organization, he was recognized and well regarded, accepted and had the sense of belonging. He probably thought that this is place where he can be himself and free from the opinions of others.
He is the sort that cannot accept other’s opinions so his activities was probably not known by his in laws and in laws were upset with him for often being out of a job.
His wife and children often went hungry because there was no money for food as Mas Selamat was overseas. His in-laws would send food to their home, the children stopped attending school. Mas Selamat was firm with his family and his wife who wore a veil covering most of his face save for her eyes was not allowed to speak to friends or relatives. Just like Mas Selamat was being controlled by the JI organization, his wife was controlled by him. What I cannot understand was when he was caught by the Indonesian police; he smiled to the photographers rushing forward to snap his pictures. What was he thinking when he was caught? That his comrades will rescue him or that he is confident that he can outwit the Government by his prison escape attempts.
During this escape, doesn’t he care for his wife, five children, four boys and a girl aged seven to eighteen years? What will happen to his wife and the five children going through emotional thoughts on why his father is being man-hunted by the authorities?
Even he can escape this time, what will be the future for his wife and children?
He is too deeply involved with the mission and its objectives and the sort who cannot accept other’s opinions. He is already having “his two legs deep in the mire” that he cannot be reformed even during his two years of detention.
Sometimes even when this person knows that he is terribly wrong and what he did cannot be forgiven (in his own thinking) he will not turn back as he is already too much in this unworthy cause. Turning back as a reformed man will make him “lose face” in the face of his family, JI members and JI organization. His escape is the only last hope he has, I hope that he will come out in surrender and recognizing his own mistakes and clear his conscious of any guilt he may have.
He is the sort that cannot accept other’s opinions so his activities was probably not known by his in laws and in laws were upset with him for often being out of a job.
His wife and children often went hungry because there was no money for food as Mas Selamat was overseas. His in-laws would send food to their home, the children stopped attending school. Mas Selamat was firm with his family and his wife who wore a veil covering most of his face save for her eyes was not allowed to speak to friends or relatives. Just like Mas Selamat was being controlled by the JI organization, his wife was controlled by him. What I cannot understand was when he was caught by the Indonesian police; he smiled to the photographers rushing forward to snap his pictures. What was he thinking when he was caught? That his comrades will rescue him or that he is confident that he can outwit the Government by his prison escape attempts.
During this escape, doesn’t he care for his wife, five children, four boys and a girl aged seven to eighteen years? What will happen to his wife and the five children going through emotional thoughts on why his father is being man-hunted by the authorities?
Even he can escape this time, what will be the future for his wife and children?
He is too deeply involved with the mission and its objectives and the sort who cannot accept other’s opinions. He is already having “his two legs deep in the mire” that he cannot be reformed even during his two years of detention.
Sometimes even when this person knows that he is terribly wrong and what he did cannot be forgiven (in his own thinking) he will not turn back as he is already too much in this unworthy cause. Turning back as a reformed man will make him “lose face” in the face of his family, JI members and JI organization. His escape is the only last hope he has, I hope that he will come out in surrender and recognizing his own mistakes and clear his conscious of any guilt he may have.
.JPG)
