A 160% rise in unarmed gang robberies; 30% rise in rape; a 21% rise in night-time house break-ins; 11% increase in car thefts – and many more should send a chill down our spines.

The Prime Minister’s statement that citizens will have to pay more if we are to see a reduction in crime is equally dampening.

Many a frequent traveller will attest to having fallen victim to street crime or house break-ins, which are rarely heard of even in cities in neighbouring countries in the region.

In many of those cities, we do not witness shoppers clutching handbags in fear of snatch thefts; homes are not barricaded like high-security prisons as is the increasing trend for Malaysian homes; and letting your young daughters walk alone on a shopping spree in a foreign land seems to be an easy decision, unlike here.

The four core areas that our PM said the police would be focusing on, namely, hiring retired police officers and training new officers to increase the number of personnel by 60,000 in 2011; increasing the number of civilians in the police force (e.g. for secretarial work); compelling private property owners to install close-circuit cameras (CCTV); and constructing more police stations and beat bases, only further increases the degree of concern.

It raises several unanswered questions.

Why are we looking at these four core areas only now?

Have the rakyat and politicians not been raising alarm bells since 2004?

And while waiting till 2011 for the full remedy to be in place, would we not be continuing to pay the crime through loss of more property and lives?

How is it that while other countries and governments had taken various measures in the past in anticipation of rising crime, we have waited for the 160% explosion before considering four core strategies, and only now?

Perhaps, rather than merely holding citizens wholly responsible or blaming them, the Government needs to do some serious soul-searching for the state we are in.

Let honour, honesty and reality prevail. Only then can we see immediate and effective change to the deteriorating crime state.

J.D. LOVRECIEAR,

Semenyih, Selangor.

Source: The Star – January 10, 2008