I was floored.
In response to my questioning on the deplorable crime situation when winding-up his Ministry in Parliament in the 2010 Budget debate, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the Home Ministry official website poll of some 10,000 respondents on crime in Malaysia do not reflect the actual situation as the number of persons involved do not come to even .01 per cent of the Malaysian population of 27 million.
I told Hishammuddin that this was a most shameful answer and demonstrated that the government was in serious denial, raising grave questions about its commitment to end the endemic crime situation to restore a safe country where citizens, tourists and investors can feel safe and secure.
The three findings of the recent Home Ministry website opinion polls were:
*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”.
I asked Hishammuddin what is the use of the Home Ministry putting up such opinion polls on its website if he as Minister was going to “rubbish” them.
Hishammuddin’s denial that he was rejecting the findings of the opinion polls on the Home Ministry website lacked all credibility.