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IS MAS Selamat still in Singapore?
This was what Dr Lily Neo, MP for Jalan Besar GRC asked in Parliament.
She also asked: "If Mas Selamat is not caught, what kind of revenge attack can we expect from him, especially if he has escaped to the neighbouring country. Is there any way of guarding us from it or at least minimising its impact on us?"
Mr Wong replied: "Well, I've always asked our security agencies for their assessment of whether Mas Selamat is still in Singapore, and based on the best available information that they have they think he is still in Singapore.
"ISD has been in contact with their counterparts in the region and they are in constant touch to find out whether they have any new information concerning Mas Selamat and the information from our counterparts so far is that they have no intelligence on Mas Selamat's whereabouts in their own country, which means that they do not have information that Mas Selamat has entered their country.
"And throughout the search in the last seven weeks or so, there were some findings, some information that led to our security agencies believing that he is in Singapore.
"I'm not at liberty to tell you exactly what these intelligence leads are because our agencies need to protect information so that they can go about their job to find the person.
"And I can assure you that every available means of collecting information about Mas Selamat has been deployed, every available means.
"Dr Neo asked what happens if he managed, if Mas Selamat managed to escape from Singapore and whether that would pose a greater risk to us - by launching revenge attacks.
"Well, he would because he is a terrorist who wants to strike us. Even way back in 2001, or before that, he had plans to crash a plane into Changi Airport and that is why we consider him to be a key figure in the terrorist network. If he could leave Singapore and connect back with his JI friends, they could well launch some plans to attack Singapore.
"And that brings me to the point which I've made all the time, that Singapore is a prime target with or without Mas Selamat. That is because Singapore is the one that exposed the JI network; that is because we are such a developed place in the region that if anyone can plant a bomb in Singapore and have it explode in Singapore, then they would signal to the world that they have hit a prime target.
"Therefore, in all our measures we have to make sure that our first line of defence, which is the checkpoints, must be well secured and people coming in must be thoroughly checked.
"So to the best of our ability, we will try to prevent such people from coming in."
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