The minister’s revelation of the number of thefts involving police firearms and vehicles is most shocking. How can the very people who are commissioned to provide safety and security to the rakyat have also become victims of theft?
We have witnessed how even VVIPs have had their dwellings ransacked by buglers despite having round-the-clock vigilance. Never mind about the thousands of simple citizens who have lost their possessions and even life in some cases either within their securely fenced and chained homes or on the busy streets.
We also know of how mysteriously the C4 explosives left tightly guarded police barracks to blow up a foreign national.
The local newspapers have responsibly highlighted the numerous accounts of reported crimes in the country that have left citizens and tourists poorer and sometimes maimed.
Citizens have also consistently written in the Letters columns of newspapers raising the alarm of the need for improved safety at tamans and on the streets.
All these stories have only been dismissed by relevant authorities and their key spokespersons saying, “our crime level is declining”, or “the public must learn to be more responsible”.
Today we know that not only are we unsafe within our barricaded homes – let alone the open streets, but even our guardians of crime have fallen victim to robberies and theft. And mind you, it involves firearms and police vehicles.
Time is up to stop all rhetoric. The onus is on the government to effectively address this endemic problem and not leave it to privatised security companies and Rukun Tetanggas to do the job at the expense of the already financially burdened rakyat.
MPs should also raise this matter with greater passion and urgency and not just stick to politicising issues pertaining to their power-game interests.
Otherwise we are just on the edge of becoming Asia’s most unsafe destination.
J. D. Lovrenciear
Semenyih
J. D. Lovrenciear, APR, FIPR, jdlovrenciear@yahoo.com
H/P 012 2366017
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