The fact that he chastised media for playing up “crime” shows the angle from which he is coming: the importance of perception than reality. But that’s what it is all today in politics – the importance of massaging voters’ perception in favour of one’s party against the other with voters being “consumers” in this consumer-orientated social media empowered age. In short political propaganda! Can one blame Idris? As Pemandu CEO whose work is to deliver his boss’s key government initiatives and targets on ‘transformation’ to convince electorate to win the GE – he is by nature of the job- made a BN/govt propagandist. Ask any propagandist anywhere – the tools of trade are as always (in the words of academic researcher Dr Ong Kian Ming), “pretentious words and slick presentations protestations of diligence and toil and selective representation of data obscure the true picture.”
However frankly, what else does one reasonably expect the Pemandu chief otherwise to do when reporting on progress of his boss’s transformation programme from the economy to cutting index crime? To tell the truth?

Many factors bear on rising crime (both reality & perception): increase in population, rural – urban drift, rising costs of living/inflationary pressures vis-avis growing divide between haves and haves not, influx of foreigners and pervasive corruption etc that stem from structural and policy issues – not just how efficient or inefficient our police task force. Though opposition/detractors will attack the govt responsible for law enforcement, pointing to the gap between its high faluting transformation aspirations (eg NKAs) and real situation at ground level, the BN will of course try spin it the other way to say that concrete progress has been made. I guess all is fair and war (in politics and propaganda) but the truth is nothing much ( besides playing statistics) can be done to remedy/reverse crime situation unless the BN and principally UMNO’s fundamental policies (including patronage and ethnic policies underpinning crime or other areas eg education or economic perforance) are changed – which of course they are not prepared to change, which neither PM nor Idris with the best of intentions could on their own alone have the power to change.

Whatever statistics the Pemandu chief churns out benefit of doubt is withheld than given because of apparently the trust deficit for what the govt here says. Whilst its true that public perception may vary from reality, it is felt exeprience of many here that the perception of rising crime is a reality (and not just a bias view arising from lack of trust for the govt.) Reports of crime incidences are not just from media (printed or online); they’re from personal experience, anecdotal experience, listening to what friends and relatives say who have no reason to say these happened when they did not. How could Idris’s statistics be relied upon when he’s by nature of job has to defend Najib’s NKRAs, the security agencies that give the statistics to him have an interest to down play them to preserve their own image/professionalism, and many of us as victims of crime don’t even bother to report them to police as we don’t think anything stolen can be recovered by the police?