What is suspicious?

When I ride the MRT here in Singapore, I am constantly watching that 'bomb threat awareness' video that is played on a loop. To sum it all up, if you havent been to Singapore and ridden the train, is that because there were bombings in Bali, London and various other major cities around the world that killed and wounded hundreds of people, Singaporeans should be on the watch because it could happen here. I guess when there were video tapes found years back of a bus stop where American soldiers/expats were known to frequent and a possible bomb planning was in the works, it just goes to show that Singapore is a hot bed for terrorist activity. This video tells people to watch for people carrying suspicious and heavy bags, people that act in a suspicious manner (in the video it is portrayed by a man in big dark sunglasses with a big dark hat wearing dark clothing carrying a big dark bag shifting from foot to foot and looking around nervously), and he leaves his bag under the seat and denies that it is his when pressed by a woman. I think I mentioned it before somewhere in my posts because there were a few things that I scratched my head about and had a laugh at.

There are also the posters and signs all over the MRT station for backpacks with the title "Suspicious? report it" or "If only it was this simple to spot" with a picture of a backpack with a big lit fuse round bomb like the mad bomber in The Pink Panther always ran around carrying. So with all these signs and warnings telling Singaporeans to be wary of suspicious items because the threat is out there, I feel somewhat safe.

However, obviously there is a problem with the definition of the word 'suspicious'. What is suspicious to you might not be suspicious to me. For instance, the other day my wife, her friend and I were out walking through a packed mall. As we were going up an escalator, I noticed a shopping bag sitting next to a garbage can at the base of the escalator and upon looking into it as I walked past it I noticed that there was a leather shoulder bag inside this bag. As the video would say "hmmmm, this is suspicious", or at least that is what I thought. I walked by to see how long the bag would stay there. I got to the top of the escalator and still the bag was being walked around by all the people but no one was apparently calling '999 or alert our staff' like directed in all the informational bombardments. I then asked my wife and her friend if they saw the suspicious looking bag to which they looked at me strangely and then started to look around them for possibly a big black bag (like in the video) with a man in black sunglasses and hat darting away from it mumbling "not mine..not mine", or possibly a big bag ticking with a skull and cross bones taped to the front. When I described the bag and pointed to it from the next floor up, the two just shrugged and went "guess someone is just throwing away their old bag and using the new bag that they bought" and walked away.

Granted, that could be the case. I mean, you buy your bag, transfer all your stuff to the new bag in a busy shopping mall and leave the old bag on the floor because it is too big to stuff into the small bin. Could it also be a case of 'no one would bomb a shopping mall, the hub of economy, terrorists only bomb transport stations to disrupt the transport line of manpower and supplies'? what and where does an item have to be before it can be considered suspicious?

As for why I didnt call it in or report it. I had to fall back on my excuse that if I can not complain about the gov't, point out flaws in economy and have an opinion about anything that goes on here, I guess I also dont have the right to point out these suspicious things since I obviously am overly sensitive and suspicious of these things.