I will refer to the Straits Times article, “Bomb scare on SIA” by Karamjit Kaur, on August 20th 2009. (Link) It was reported that there was a bomb scare on a plane mid-air heading towards Melbourne the previous night. The airline crew conducted a search and found nothing, and the plane landed safely. As a further precaution, the subsequent Singapore-Melbourne flight was also checked, and fortunately no bomb was found either. However, was the further precaution necessary? Is Singapore really doing too much to be safe? For me, I think that even though it seems that we do too much, the extra measures are still necessary.
Singapore takes extra precautions in many instances: the UV sterilization of NEWater at the final stage, the temperature checks and hand sanitizations to prevent the spread of H1N1, etc, but why do we do it? The answer is quite simple: to make up for areas not completely fulfilled within the system. NEWater production process and the airplane checks are all examples of systems. Each system consists of many components which work together to achieve a desired result. The implementation of further precautionary measures is essential: when one or more components fail to execute their job properly, these measures will make up for them and still produce the desired outcome.
If for example, during the NEWater production process, one of the filters was faulty and allowed some foreign microorganisms to remain, the UV sterilization will ensure that these remaining microorganisms will be killed, and the resultant water is clean. In the case of the bomb scare mentioned above, it was possible that there really was a bomb, but not on the first plane. When the first check fails to reveal it, the subsequent checks on other planes will either reveal the bomb, or confirm that there was no such bomb in the first place. In short, extra measures help make up for faults in the system, and that is why they are necessary.
Another reason why we take extra measures is that in fact, they may not really be “extra” but are actually a must. In Singapore, why do we still have compulsory National Service for men, even though there are no imminent threats to us and no wars we are fighting in? Actually, we currently have no terrorism threats, or are directly fighting in any wars now, because we have National Service: this practice helps build up a very strong defense force here, making us less vulnerable to terrorism attacks and thus less likely to be a target to terrorists.
Even then, why make it compulsory? We do not need everybody to join the army and defend Singapore, just a group big enough to defend the country. This is what we call the “extra” bit. It really is not necessary to get every single man to be a soldier, but it is still beneficial anyway: the more we have, the stronger we get, and the more prepared we will be against threats. Besides, our people are our main resource, and the government is making the most out of us. So, sometimes extra precautions are more necessary and important than others think.
Hence, I believe that even though we may take a lot of extra precautions, it can never be too much because we are still reducing the chances of a worst-case scenario from happening, no matter how slim, and this is beneficial and desired. So the next time your plane lands, and you are stuck in a long security check, do not think of this procedure as useless: it could help save more lives.
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