Hamid, what are you doing to carry out your basic duty?

Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar - What are you doing to carry out your basic duty as Home Minister to make the public places, streets and homes safe for Malaysians, tourists and investors?

Hamid declared yesterday that investigations into Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan’s sodomy allegations against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will not be dropped.

Hamid has a lot of time for the sodomy charge against Anwar. But has he got time to restore to Malaysians, tourists and investors their most basic human right to be safe in public places?

Has Hamid read or been informed of the following letter which appeared in today’s Sun and can he declare what he has done about it? Or has he just got no time for these mundane things as compared to the sodomy allegation against Anwar?

Hamid, waiting for your public response to the following letter in the Sun today:

Shaken by experience with gang of youths

ON Saturday (July 19), two of my foreign colleagues (a man and a woman) and I went in to work as there was a project to rush.

After dinner at KLCC, at around 8pm, we walked back to the office at Etiqa Tower, which is opposite the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

On the way, on the slightly sloping road between the hotel and our office (which has an open air car park adjacent to it), we saw a gang of about 15 youngsters walk towards us from about 50m away.

We felt apprehensive looking at the group – consisting of about 20 or so-year-old male and female youngsters – but still continued on our way to the office. When we got closer to them, we picked up our pace to pass them, but one of them purposely walked into my colleague and then moved away.

We tried to hurry past, but to my horror, I saw another guy walk towards my colleagues from behind holding a metal water pipe and hit my colleague on the arm before walking away. We were in shock and unable to act because there were so many of them.

Then, regardless of how many and how fast the cars on the road, we took the risk and ran across, hoping to get as far away from the group as possible.

Luckily, they walked away in the direction of the hotel. But I saw a Chinese lady become their next victim. They walked close to her and started to disturb her. I saw her scream at them and run away.

Look at what has happened to our society today. There wasn’t a thing we could do about our experience, only feel that it was our bad day. I felt sorry that I was not able to protect my colleagues on what was their first trip to Malaysia.

So I write to warn others walking around Kuala Lumpur to stay alert at all times.

Lim Kit Siang