By Ong Kian Ming Malaysiakini
The issue of crime, especially in the urban areas, has once again surfaced as a hot political issue. The Home Minister, Hishamuddin Hussein, was quoted as saying that the fear of crime is a result of ‘public perception’ while the CEO of PEMANDU, Idris Jala, was reported as having asked the media to focus more on the crimes that have been solved rather than those which have been committed. Meanwhile, DAP MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua, seems to have been given conflicting sets of crime data on Selangor and has called for PEMANDU and the Home Ministry to released detailed crime statistics by the type of crime and the places where they were committed.
It is very difficult to question the validity of the crime statistics since this data is collected, compiled and later disseminated to the various ministries and later the public at large by the police. An in-depth audit is required in order to get a better handle on the veracity of these statistics. However, what we can do is to take a closer look at some of the cross country indexes which the Government Transformation Program (GTP) and various Ministers including the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the PEMANDU CEO have used as ‘external validation’ that the Reducing Crime National Key Results Area (NKRA) is working as planned. This ‘evidence’ falls apart upon closer examination.
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A copy of the 2012 GPI can be downloaded here: http://www.visionofhumanity.org/globalpeaceindex/2012-gpi-findings/
These indicators are: (i) level of perceived criminality in society (ii) number of internal security officers and police per 100,000 (iii) Number of homicides per 100,000 (iv) Number of jailed population per 100,000 (v) East of access to small weapons and light weapons (vi) Level of violent Crime
Ong Kian Ming holds a PhD in Political Science from Duke University. He can be reached at im.ok.man(at)gmail(dot)com. His house was attacked by 3 thugs while he was doing research for this article. His account of the attack can be read here (http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/thugs-at-my-doorstep-ong-kian-ming/)