The escape of Mas Selamat has had a strong impact on Singapore’s society, and has raised serious doubts in the public’s perception of government accountability. Of course, the impact of this issue also includes the damage that these doubts could do to the government-people relationship. For so long, this relationship has been fairly stable and harmonious, even though there were various conflicts that have arisen over the years when the people have expressed their unsatisfaction about the government’s decision on certain issues, such as those related to foreign workers. Many members of the PAP government itself have suddenly become alert and raised questions in Parliament, although these, along with doubts expressed by the media, were done politely, in keeping with the tradition of deference to a powerful government that generally does not tolerate dissent. However, the politeness did not last long as the public began to become impatient with the response from the government with regard to Mas Selamat’s escape. The majority of public opinion came from a younger generation, who are more knowledgable, sophisticated and display a greater awareness to public issues, thanks to a new culture spawned by the Internet and globalisation
The Mas Selamat incident created two paradigms, diverged further apart as there was no meeting of minds between both sides. Thus, this incident apparently damaged the government-people relationship that has been established since Singapore’s