KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 — Lim Kit Siang urged Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin today to eradicate crime in the southern state capital, instead of allowing authorities to punish tenants over paper cut-outs replicating the famous Lego mural.

The DAP adviser said Khaled should advise the Johor Bahru City Council (MBJB) to quit harassing tenants in Taman Molek, after it reportedly warned tenants and shop-owners that they would be fined RM500 if they failed to remove the cut-outs within a week.

The cut-outs were meant to replace the original mural by Ernest Zacharevic highlighting the problem of crime, which local government officials had painted over.

“Is Khaled prepared to ask MBJB to end its unhealthy obsession with Zacha’s wall graffiti and the cut-outs and instead, use the opportunity to provide the leadership to rally all stakeholders in Johor Bahru to make the Johor capital a safe and secure city with low crime rate?” Lim questioned.

“This should be the focus of the MBJB and even the Johor state government, instead of going on a wild goose chase to wipe out Zacha’s street mural and the cut-outs,” added the Gelang Patah MP.

Johor Mayor Ismail Karim was reported by English daily The Star yesterday as saying that notices will be issued to owners of premises where similar cut-outs have appeared, such as on the walls outside the Chinese cultural museum on Jalan Tan Hiok Nee and in an alley on Jalan Maju.

Last Wednesday, MBJB painted over Lithuanian-born Zacharevic's mural, which had featured a knife-wielding Lego man mugger lurking in the corner for a Lego woman carrying a “Chanel” handbag, but cut-outs of the Lego characters have started appearing around Johor Bahru, which is a crime hotspot, since then.

Ismail also reportedly said the council has started engaging youths to discuss plans to convert Taman Linear Park near Desa Tebrau in Johor Baru into a youth park next year.

He said a wide wall will be built at the park to provide a proper place for graffiti artists to express their creativity.

Artists, however, must obtain prior approval from MBJB before drawing at the special graffiti wall, according to MBJB corporate communications and public relations director, Abdul Aziz Ithnin.

He also told The Malay Mail Online over the weekend that the art pieces must not offend the sensitivities of other races and religions in the multi-cultural country.

Last Wednesday, Singapore daily Straits Times reported Johor police as acknowledging that the state’s capital city remains a crime hotspot, despite the reduction of crime in the southern state near neighbouring Singapore.

ACP Abdul Aziz Ahmad was quoted as saying that 70 per cent of crime in Johor occurs in Johor Bahru, but noted that the crime rate in the state is expected to fall by 7.4 per cent this year to a little more than 17,500 cases, from about 19,000 cases last year. A total of 26,624 crimes were reported in Johor in 2008.