Hishammuddin’s recent announcement to make crime-busting “top priority” debunked by his four-day thunderous silence on allegation of fake crime statistics by “whistleblower” police officer


Some ten days ago, the Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein made the shocking admission that the focus on crime-busting was “not seen as a need” for the government, until only recently.

He then claimed that the government has “now got the political will right to the top” to fight crime.

This is an admission of a gross dereliction of duty by Hishammuddin as Home Minister.

I need only cite three reasons to back up such a harsh judgment.

Firstly, as far back as seven years ago in May 2005, the Dzaiddin Royal Police Commission report expressed alarm at the “high incidence of crime”, when it noted:

“The incidence of crime increased dramatically in the last few years, from 121,176 cases in 1997 to 156,465 cases in 2004, an increase of 29 per cent. The increase seriously dented Malaysia’s reputation as a safe country. Malaysians in general, the business sector and foreign investors grew increasingly concerned with the situation. The fear was that, if the trend continues, there would be major social and economic consequences for Malaysia. A survey of 575 respondents from the public carried out by the Commission clearly demonstrates the extremely widespread concern among all ethnic groups and foreign residents. Between 82.2 per cent and 90 per cent of the respondents, or 8 to 9 persons in every 10, were concerned with the occurrence of crime.”

Secondly, on his appointment as Home Minister in 2009, the Home Ministry conducted an online opinion survey on its website from 20th to 28th July 2009, and found a worsening in public confidence in the crime situation in the country with public worry about the lack of safety from crime and their fear of crime increased from 89% in 2004 (poll conducted by Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission) to 97% – while the number of respondents who felt safe from crime fell sharply from one in ten in 2004 to one in 100 in 2009!

The following were the findings of the Home Ministry website poll in 2009:

• 97% or 9,729 out of 10,060 respondents felt unsafe because of the high crime rate, with only 1% or 89 respondents felt safe and 2% or 242 respondents in the “uncertain” category.

• 95% or 8,883 out of 9,319 respondents felt that the safety of the people was not guaranteed as compared to 3% or 248 respondents who felt it was still guaranteed, with 2% or 188 respondents in the “uncertain” category.

• 94% or 8,743 out of 9,261 respondents felt that government had not done its best to ensure that the safety of the people was at the best level with 2% or 185 respondents felt that the government had done its best, and 4% or 333 persons “uncertain”?

Thirdly, on 9th June this year, after the bloody mugging of Bersih steering committee member Wong Chin Huat while jogging near his home in Section 18, Petaling Jaya and the gruesome abduction attack of Bandar Kinrara, Puchong teacher Teoh Soo Kim, 51, which were evidence of the failure of the Najib government to reduce crime and to eradicate the fear of crime among Malaysians, I had said in a media statement:

“It is no use the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and the CEO of Pemandu and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Idris Jala boasting about Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and National Key Result Areas (NKRA) successes, such as claiming that the overall crime index for 2011 had dropped by 11.1%, while street crime decreased significantly by 39.7% compared with 35% in 2010 – and a marked improvement from the 15% reduction in street crime set under the NKRA in 2010 – when Malaysians still do not feel safe from the fear of crime whether in the privacy of their homes, or outside in the streets and public places”.

With these three incidents in the background, for Hishammuddin to confess some 10 days ago that crime-busting was “not seen as a need” and to declare that “for the first time since Merdeka, crime-busting is a priority”, it is not only the height of irresponsibility and dereliction of duty on his part as Home Minister in the past three years, it has become one of the most infamous instances debunking the 55th Merdeka Day theme of “Janji Ditepati”.

But apparently, there is worse to come – the very serious allegation four days ago by a Police Officer of 30 years’ service about manipulation and doctoring of crime statistics to give the false picture of drastic fall in crime rate when this is not the case, giving a very credible account of how this doctoring of crime statistics is done to mislead Malaysians about GTP and NKRA successes in combatting crime.

Although the “whistleblower” police officer has given a very credible account of the doctoring of crime statistics, Malaysians have withheld final judgment awaiting clarification from Hishammuddin as the Home Minister and the GTP/NKRA Ministers Datuk Sri Idris Jala and Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon.

In continuing his thunderous four-day silence on the serious “whistleblower” allegation of fake crime statistics, Hishammuddin is in fact debunking his recent announcement to make crime-busting the government “top priority”.

Even more serious, the continued thunderous silence of Hishammuddin, Idris and Koh on the serious allegations of fake crime statistics for the GTP and NKRA exercises will give the 55th Merdeka Day theme of “Janji Ditepati” special though unwanted connotations.

For these reasons, Hishammuddin, Idris and Koh cannot continue their deafening silence about the serious allegations of fake crime statistics.

If these three Ministers are not prepared to break their silence, let a special Cabinet meeting be convened before Merdeka Day to delve into the serious allegations of doctored crime statistics and let the truth be told to the Malaysian public before Merdeka Day celebrations.

If what the “whistleblower” police officer alleged about the manipulation of crime statistics are true, the Police must be given the authority to release the correct and comparable crime statistics as compared with the past years to restore public confidence in the independence, integrity and professionalism of the police force.

  1. #1 by Cinapek on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 1:32 pm

    “..This is an admission of a gross dereliction of duty by Hishammuddin as Home Minister. ..”

    I also remembered his thunderous pledge that he will “go all out” to wipe out the Ah Long menace a couple of years ago.

    Well, the Ah Longs are still blatantly pasting their advertisement posters all over my housing estate with their telephone numbers visible a mile away. And some of them are right in front of the police beat base!! To complement this marketing approach, the Ah longs also made sure that alI the houses received a bunch of name cards daily.

    Compare this with our little red dot neighbour who announced recently the arrests of a Ah Long syndicate with Malaysian members.

  2. #2 by PoliticoKat on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 2:25 pm

    ==Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein made the shocking admission that the focus on crime-busting was “not seen as a need” for the government, until only recently. ==

    Probably happened when a certain cabinet minister’s wife was robbed while the window of her BMW was smashed in.

    Or was it when a senior Election Commission officer woke up in the morning to find his two daughters locked up in the bathroom after their home had been broken into by three robbers armed with knives.

    I think it was the wife.

    Good to know that Malaysian thieves are equal opportunist. It doesn’t matter who you are, the wife of a political big shot riding in a BMW or a factory worker riding on her motorcycle. Malaysian thieves will rob both equally.

  3. #3 by boh-liao on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 2:26 pm

    Aiyah, give him chance lah 4 his ELEGANT SILENCE – he needs time 2 COOK UP some excuses mah n then 2 get his cousin’s approval

  4. #4 by sheriff singh on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 3:24 pm

    Surely the IGP must want to say something on this. We are waiting.

    The next question is how ‘good’ or bad is the non-index crime situation?

    In total, how many crime incidents are reported annually for the recent years?

  5. #5 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 4:15 pm

    Hishammuddin, please wake up!

    Any schoolboy now knows this expression:
    “there are statistics and there are lies”.

    Who doesn’t know BN is the biggest spinner of lies in this part of the world?

  6. #6 by monsterball on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 7:13 pm

    That is a show dog Home Minister…..useless good for nothing piece of sheeeeet.

  7. #7 by Winston on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 8:45 pm

    Expect anyone from the devil’s party to fight crime?
    They are the greatest robbers of all time!!!
    Still want to give them a chance to clean up the crime scene?
    Or to clean you out?

  8. #8 by waterfrontcoolie on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 9:30 pm

    In the world of Facebook and Twitter, a guy with supposedly a law degree from UK just refused to accept the fact that he could not continue to do what some of his predecessors had done: that is to play with Stats which I am quite sure he isn’t good at. The question we need to ask: Why is he doing such thing? Ignorance? Arrogance? It is nothing of that sort : it is a sign that the whole BN is desperate! They will simply make press conferences knowing the spineless press will not ask him any questions at all! They will just publish whatever rubbish they are to print! Did the Press even ponder all those figures they published? They are part of the scheme. I believe most THINKING Malaysians have stopped reading them. The way some of the rogues in town behave, you know they have friends who would let them off, they ride across Red traffic lights; they threaten you when they simply block you pathway! Yes, we are on our way to 2020 to compete with some African nations!

  9. #9 by yhsiew on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 10:09 pm

    ///the Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein made the shocking admission that the focus on crime-busting was “not seen as a need” for the government, until only recently.///

    Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein is the wrong person for the Home Minister post.

  10. #10 by sheriff singh on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 10:16 pm

    He should be in the post office. Even that he will fail.

  11. #11 by sheriff singh on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 10:19 pm

    Now they may put the statistics under the OSA. And maybe they are now looking for the whistle-blower.

  12. #12 by sheriff singh on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 10:31 pm

    We have heard of creative accounting. Now we have creative manipulations.

  13. #13 by dagen wanna "ABU" on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 10:40 pm

    Creative manipulation, sheriff? It is more like plain crude trickery. What surprised me more was the fact that umno dared to carry out such lame trick. Maybe they are confident that we are all super suckers.

  14. #14 by sheriff singh on Sunday, 26 August 2012 - 11:10 pm

    We are all super suckers? Speak for yourself. Leave me out.

  15. #15 by monsterball on Monday, 27 August 2012 - 1:50 am

    sheriff….please read whole sentence la…before you jump to stupid conclusion.

  16. #16 by 1orangkaya on Monday, 27 August 2012 - 4:23 am

    Next, they’re gonna meddle with BANK NEGARA statistics…watch out.

  17. #17 by 1orangkaya on Monday, 27 August 2012 - 4:45 am

    Btw sheriff, go grab some beer & chill out…

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