–Charles Santiago, MP, Klang.

Lord Voldemort is the main protagonist in Harry Potter movies. He is evil incarnate and extremely feared. Even wizards and magicians were terrified of him, so much so they referred to him as “You know who”. And of course it was completely unimaginable that anyone would say his name.

Why am I talking about Voldemort, you may ask. Well simply because his fictional character has a distinct link to the crime rate in our country. Except that the crime scene in Malaysia is very real. But it simply cannot be mentioned or discussed openly. 

The police are afraid to reveal real statistics, preferring instead to make up fictional numbers by using different methods of data compilation to categorize crime. Therefore the rakyat were fed with statistics like 740 crimes per 100,000 people in 2009, a figure ridiculously low compared with 665 in famously low-crime Singapore. 

Obviously the government expects us to think dangerous crimes are decreasing and the police force is efficient in reducing crimes of such nature.

Both are untrue.

Recently, a commenter on my Facebook page shared a case where her father was robbed at the entrance of his house in Klang, which is my constituency. This was the third robbery experienced by him and his neighbour’s home had been broken into twice. 

Another commenter also shared a similar experience, where her neighbour in Taman Gembira, Klang was robbed in bright daylight by four parang-wielding thugs.

I share the same concern and shock as every Malaysia regarding such horror crimes happening. And these crimes are on the rise. While the police say otherwise, one need not look any further that the social media which has been key in spreading such cases almost on a daily basis. 

One day after two men tried to abduct 24-year-old Chin Xia-Ci at knifepoint in her car at an upscale shopping mall, she wrote about her ordeal and the post was shared more than 51,000 times. 

Fearing rape, she managed to jump out of her car when it slowed at the exit of the car park.

Incidences of kidnappings, car windows being smashed at traffic lights, theft, robbery and violent crimes have Malaysians living in fear.

The matter of public security and safety falls under the purview of the federal government, as provided in our constitution. This ultimately refers to the Home Ministry – and in turn the police.

The federal government has the constitutional duty to ensure the protection and safety of all Malaysians. And yet, we have a Home Minister who says that surging crime is a matter of public perception. 

Then he made a U-turn saying the perception theory does not hold water and admitted something had to be done. 

Prime ministerNajibRazak pledged to reduce crime when he took office. And now that he has to call for elections, the government is adamant about claiming its crime prevention exercise has reached huge progress and accuses social media of hyping up the problem. 

And the police are complacent and dismissive. I am talking from personal experience of having dealt with them. 

My service centre in Klang has been receiving numerous reports and complaints on crime, which has steadily been on the rise. Many constituents have also personally raised the issue with me. 

At a meeting with Klang Selatan OCPD a few weeks back together with Resident Associations, RukunTetangga and non-governmental organizations, I proposed the following:

1. The police have a weekly press conference to reveal the number of new reported crimes and indicate how they have solved old cases.

2. Improve community policing.

3. Increase “meet the people” session through regular dialogues with Resident Associations and RukunTetangga and NGOs

4. Instead of cruising around in their cars, the policemen walked when patrolling the streets.

5. The police work with local communities to fight crime.

6. The police improve peoples’ confidence in the police force given the perception that they enjoy a close relationship with syndicate bosses, making the public hesitant to lodge reports as the police would inform local thugs upon receiving such reports.

While the meeting went well and the police head was accommodating, none of my recommendations have been implemented.

The police force is a prime actor in crime reduction. Therefore playing dumb and being defensive to downplay the trend of shocking crime incidents will certainly not help. 

As it is, there are systematic weaknesses in the police force which must be addressed.

One of these weaknesses is the allocation of police personnel. In the Home  Ministry’s written parliamentary reply to my colleague Liew Chin Tong (MP for Bukit Bendera), the following are noted for 2011:

1. 14% of the uniformed police force is in crime-related departments (criminal investigation department, narcotics and commercial crime investigation).

2. 86% of police personnel belong to the non-crime related sectors (management, internal security and public order, logistics, special branch, and special task force)

3. In budgetary allocation, there is an increase of RM 1.8 billion (40%) between 2010 and 2012, and yet consistently in the past three years, the criminal investigation department has received only 8% of the total allocation.

These numbers speak for themselves. There has to be better management and allocation of finance and resources to arrest the crime rate in the country.

Malaysia aims to be a developed nation by 2020 and is focused on shoring up its talent base. But the recent spate of crime, which have expatriates fearing for their safety, will not attract talent to counter our skills shortage and brain drain. 

A string of ATM robberies, robberies that end up with victims dying, armed robberies,car jacking and mugging in upmarket mall parking lots do not paint Malaysia as a safe place. 

And asking the media to “stop sensationalizing” crime cases is not the way to go either. 

Crime is a multi-faceted problem and other stakeholders – communities, schools, offices, businesses – too have important roles to play. Therefore I encourage everyone to play a proactive role in addressing this problem.

My office will be launching a crime prevention campaign which we will also update in Facebook.

But the root causes of crimes are structural in nature and the responsibility to address the recent spike in crimes lies with the federal government. 

If the government cannot effectively manage the police force and ensure the basic safety of Malaysians, then it is unfit to rule the country.