Such an arresting story...

http://news.xin.msn.com/en/singapore/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5806225

The double whammy revelation (see link to story above) that two top men, one helming the civil defence force and the other the anti-drugs agency, raises at least two questions for me:

1) First and foremost, now that we know -- as of today, 25 Jan 2012 -- that one man was arrested last year, on 19 Dec, and the other on 4 Jan this year, why did it take so long to tell Singaporeans, whose taxes pay for these public servants' salaries, about it?

The authorities' caginess would have been understandable if the two men have yet to be arrested. An official response of "investigations are still proceeding" would have then been acceptable.

2) And when Lianhe Wanbao broke the story on Monday, 23 Jan [the Chinese evening daily, quoting unnamed sources, said the case involved "money and women"], the public was unaware that the men had already been arrested. Likewise, when TODAY and ST ran their stories today (25 Jan), perceptive readers had to do some guesswork.

This was TODAY's page one headline and sub-head deck:

Allegations of 'serious personal misconduct' against SCDF commissioner, CNB director
* CPIB probe ongoing
* Both men suspended
* New SCDF chief and CNB director appointed

So, one is left wondering why new chiefs had been appointed [to take over from Feb 1], ie, instead of having acting chiefs take over until the legal cases had been concluded. 

As for ST, its page one lead headline too was based on an "ongoing probe":

Civil defence, narcotics chiefs in CPIB probe... Both suspended from today; successors to take over from Feb 1

But, interestingly, ST's intro used the more definitive word "removed" rather than "suspended", a word more suitable if arrests had not been made:

Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) chief Peter Lim and Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) director Ng Boon Gay have been removed from their posts and are being investigated by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).

To her credit, TODAY's reporter did ask what I shall call a "thought bubble" question...

When TODAY asked MHA [Ministry of Home Affairs] why it waited before making the investigations public and suspending the two men, MHA said that "investigations were at different stages" and it was "only fair that we gather evidence and allow for due process". [Not a word from the MHA that the arrests had been made already!]

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As we are now seeing, all the agencies involved are in damage control mode. All so unnecessary if only...

And it's not helped by this ST headline on page A8:

Probe shows that 'no one is above the law'

Isn't that stating the obvious? ST should then have made it clear, by way of attribution, that the part in quotes were voiced by MPs and "governance experts" (sic).