KUALA LUMPUR: Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar was criticised yesterday for failing to act on the rising level of crime, which was blamed for frightening off tourists and investors.
DAP adviser and Ipoh Timur MP Lim Kit Siang said the party was disappointed by Syed Hamid’s response to the fears of Taiwanese investors over the crime situation in the country.
He said Syed Hamid’s response, which was carried by a Chinese daily, that the law and order situation in Malaysia had not reached a “red danger alert” level, was unresponsive to the situation.
“This not just the concern of Taiwanese investors but all foreign and local investors, as well as ordinary Malaysians and visitors. Crime in Malaysia has become one of the biggest problems, except for the home minister,” Lim told a press conference in parliament.
Lim asked whether Syed Hamid had forgotten the spate of crimes in the country like the robbery-cum-murder of Thor Joo Lee, wife of former Bukit Tambun assemblyman Lai Chew Hock, and the case where Datin Chang Lee Lee, wife of former Penang executive councillor Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan, was robbed.
The crime index last year crossed the 200,000 psychological barrier, Lim said, and the incidence of rape had more than doubled from a daily average of four women in 2003 to 8.5 women last year.
He said the most important recommendation of the 2005 Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Police Force, to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) for an efficient, professional and world-class police force had not been implemented.
“Is Syed Hamid prepared to support the establishment of a full-fledged IPCMC and not a toothless and clawless Special Complaints Commission?” Lim asked.
He said that the crime index had worsened from 156,315 cases in 2003 to 224,298 cases last year, a 45% increase. This was despite a recommendation of the commission to reduce crime by 20% within the first 12 months of the release of the inquiry report.
The Edge
22/10/08
mi1: Less politics and more concentration on public service please!!!
1 comment:
It has long been the policy of UMNO that as long as the victims of crime are primarily the Chinese, the crime-rate is still A-okay!
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