Home minister must go if he can't tackle crime

Finally a whistleblower from the police has spilt the beans concerning the crime rate in Malaysia.

The article by the whistleblower published on the CPI Asia website is spot on.

With regard to the perceived lowering crime rates which was boasted by the NKRA on crime, one must realise that a lot of people do not report crimes any more to the police especially snatch victims and robberies, etc, because they feel that it would not make any difference.

If it is not reported then it's not in the system. That's why the crime rate seems to be low and able to be manipulated by the authorities.

Many victims have told me that the police seem to be very insensitive towards such crimes and have made it look that such crimes are normal now.

I am sure many of you will have experienced this.

Malaysia seems to be a free-for-all country as far as crimes are concerned.

Africans are having a ball of a time here committing crimes from cheating to drug trafficking.

Iranians and South Americans have joined the bandwagon, too. We read about this almost every day in the papers.

What has the home minister done so far! African students keep coming into the country to commit crimes and our government is receiving them to make Malaysia an educational hub.

I can't believe this! Why hasn't the Immigration Department which comes under the purview of the home minister got tough on this issue?

Countries like the UK, America and even India are very strict when it comes to immigration issues especially because of trans-national crime and terrorism, but our home minister seems to be taking it very easy.

What's even worse is, taxpayer's money is being used to feed these foreign criminals in Malaysian prisons.

Coming back to the local scene, the home minister, now that he has an office in Bukit Aman, and the police only need to realise that you only need to beef up intelligence in low-cost housing areas as this is where most of the culprits come from.

Believe me this is true because my wife is a snatch victim and the culprits came from the nearby flats.

The crime rate in the place where I used to live increased dramatically when the low-cost flats nearby were built.

Even some low-ranking police officers (OCS of police stations) have told me the same thing.

The Special Branch, instead of going after the political activists, should be deployed in these areas.

That's how the Special Branch defeated the communists, by placing intelligence operatives in black areas.

Why are the police not doing this when they can nip the problem in the bud! As the whistleblower writer of that article says, enough of the PR exercise by the police.

It's time to get tough. So mister home minister please buck up! If you can't do the job please resign and give it to a more capable person.

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JEYASEELAN ANTHONY is a consultant at the Faculty of Law, Universiti Malaya and a local counselor in Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya.