Pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place. Now we know that the man who died in prison might be alive today if the officers who restrained him had checked to see if he was ok. And if the officers had understood the risk in pinning down a prisoner and placing him chest down in an isolated cell.
Both were not done and Dinesh Raman’s family has lost a son.
Another piece of another puzzle is the revelation that CPIB director Eric Tan could have prevented his colleague from allegedly embezzling $1.7 million in public money if he had been more diligent in implementing the rules.
There is a worrying link between the two cases. The Prison and CPIB officers, despite being in sensitive and critical departments, were lackadaiscal in the way they went about their work.
There is no doubt that Singapore’s reputation for being a stickler for rules has taken a knock. You can have all the standard operating procedures but they have to be followed by all and sundry.
And it is the job of the leadership to send out the clear signal that zero tolerance is the way forward.
Having said that, we are satisfied that the people responsible have been dealt with, that the government has accepted responsibility for the prisoner’s death and that his family is being compensated.
