The Home Ministry website yesterday started a poll to seek public feedback as to whether the government as delivered its most basic duty in any civilized and organized society – to look after the safety and security of the people.

As at 2.20 pm today, 97% of 2,947 Malaysians polled feel unsafe, with only 1% or 30 people feel safe while 2% or 71 people are “not sure”.

The poll has maintained a consistently high percentage of 97% of the respondents who feel unsafe since the start of the poll, with 96% of 903 respondents at midnight last night and 97% of 1,224 respondents at 7.40 am this morning in the category of “unsafe” while only 2% of the respondents at midnight last night and 1% of the respondents at 7.40 am this morning who feel “safe”.

What a crying shame for the Malaysian police force and the Home Ministry that as high as 96 – 97 per cent of Malaysians feel unsafe in the streets, public places and even in the privacy of their homes with the unchecked galloping crime in the past five years.

Who must bear responsibility for this shocking state of affairs, which is only new to the Barisan Nasional Cabinet Ministers and MPs – as DAP and Pakatan Rakyat MPs have over the years been raising in Parliament and outside the cries and demands of ordinary Malaysians for a Malaysia safe from endemic crime!

Undoubtedly, the Inspector-General of Police and the Home Minister must bear responsibility for this deplorable state of crime in the country.

We can and must hold the IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan responsible as Malaysians today feel even more unsafe because of endemic crime as compared to three years ago when he became the No. 1 Policeman in the country in September 2006.

The Home Minister must also bear full responsibility, but as Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein is a new Home Minister, it would not be fair to hold him responsible for the failures of previous Home Ministers.

Malaysians must make it clear that this deplorable state of crime in the country cannot continue, and this is why Pakatan Rakyat is convening a Parliamentary Roundtable on a new IGP for a safe Malaysia in Parliament on Tuesday at 10 am to demand that Malaysians must be restored their two fundamental rights – to be free from crime and free from the fear of crime.

The two-year renewed term of Tan Sri Musa Hassan as the current Inspector-General expires in September.

Let Malaysians speak up whether they want a new IGP.

During Musa’s tenure as IGP in the past three years, the national situation deteriorated in each of the three core functions identified by the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission as the priority tasks of the police force – to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and protect human rights.

There are at least two primary reasons why the country needs a new IGP, viz:

• Failure of Musa in Key Performance Indicators (KPI) as IGP in the past three years in all the three core police functions to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and protect human rights.
• The re-appointment of Musa for another term of IGP cast an adverse aspersion on all the senior police officers, as if there is not a single one out of the eight top police officers occupying key police positions below the post of IGP who are qualified or competent enough to become the new IGP to provide a new police leadership and culture to roll back the tide of crime in the past five years.

Those who wish to attend or confirm their attendance should contact the Roundtable organising secretariat (Shabrimi 016-4124735; Lim Swee Kuan 016-6266848; Boon Kia Meng 012-5180863).

Let the Parliamentary Roundtable on Tuesday be a milestone in the journey to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service regarded as an international model for all polices forces in keeping crime low, eradicating corruption and protecting human rights.