AUG 1 — Years ago someone told me that an old friend from the neighbourhood, Leo, died. He loved art and only wanted to draw rather than pay attention to any of the dreary subjects in school.

The story recounted to me was that Leo brought some homeless junkies to his place for the night and they left later with his money after stabbing him to death. I can see Leo getting into a situation like that, just like how he was close to being sliced down when he was 17 years old because he upset some girl’s boyfriend.

He had to hide in my house while I misled the almost-deranged Valentino who was riding around on his bicycle, a Raleigh Chopper, with a chopper in the basket looking for his competition.

I acknowledge that crime is not new in this or any society, but I began with Leo to explain that crime is a human predicament with human costs driven by choice, situational realities and opportunity.

Laws, policies and politicians refusing to accept those factors are playing to their own galleries and not actively confronting the scourge of crime which every society must overcome.

Was Leo naive? Most certainly. Were the junkies blinded by their addiction which numbed their decency? Sure. Are teenagers pedalling around with meat cleavers dangerous? Yes, of course yes, but affirming self-serving questions do not reduce crime.

Criminals are part of society, and society allows criminality to grow even if it is not causing it, and within that fabric solutions must emerge.

In the present, the powers-that-be are shifting from one major murder or attempted murder case to another based on media and social media noise rather than identifying broad themes connecting them and breaking them down.

We have to be honest if we want to move beyond rants. A policy on crime has to be measured, consistent and led by policemen committed to a safe nation (not consultants in an overarching government agency like Pemandu).

If the Inspector-General of Police and home minister can only lament that there is no Emergency Ordinance (EO) or seek for more funds to CCTV the whole country, then they’ll never get the job done. They are incompetent.

If the ministers in charge of education, urban renewal, poverty alleviation and jobs are not involving themselves as parts of the solution, then both short-term and long-term plans are missing. It’s near hopeless.

If the description is fair then these gentlemen are just middle-aged men with or without uniforms — but all of them most certainly with chauffeurs — narrating the state of affairs, suggesting possibilities, entertaining proposals and refusing to accept blame.  

But if they are ready for some perspective, here’s some.

EO and forced confessions hide a truth

Zahid Hamidi, the home minister, and senior policemen yearn for the EO because it allows the latitude to arrest based on suspicion without needing to prosecute citizens. People may languish in prison for years just because.

There is consolation for the police that forced confessions are still admissible in court even if the confessors disown them later. Which was the central evidence used to convict four men for the murder of four others in the infamous Banting murder case of 2010.

Ideally, our authorities want the EO back and to keep the section on forced confessions indefinitely.

The attitude underlines a decaying force loathe to actually investigating, procuring evidence and prosecuting effectively to a conviction.

So entrenched with nefarious means to solve crimes, they’ve abandoned the bread-and-butter side of police work.

From tracking the petty thief’s whereabouts from the pawnshop to busting triads using informants, the police force has to apply itself more and more.

In short, the police have to upskill themselves for the 21st century or risk continuous ridicule.

Cabinet must be counselled by agencies

Since enforcement agencies have to employ the laws and policies for general good, they have to participate and at times lead the discussion on those tools.

For example, have Customs and police lobbied government to reduce alcohol taxes? The exorbitant tax model has made entry control impossible and contraband rife. The price structure exceeds the common man’s affordability and therefore triads, syndicates and small operators circumvent the system with ease.

The incentives are too lucrative, and a black economy thrives. Many inside the system assist while operators flood the market. Fake producers join in and protection rackets thrive on protecting the illegal game.

As long as alcohol is wrong-priced there will be a large underworld world flourishing, and in protecting their world people will be harmed.

Enforcement agencies are not here to moralise, they are here to achieve their brief. They have to tell the administration what works and what does not, and then guide them to fix laws and alter policies to match the problem.

Illegal immigrants, drug cartels, credit card fraud, secret societies and prostitution dens all leverage on practical considerations, therefore efforts to combat them have to be practical to reduce or end criminal elements.

Bridge income disparities

The lack of fair-paying jobs leads to crime.

The middle class would baulk at what police constables, menial workers, restaurant staff and clerical staff in Malaysia earn, yet the ding-dong over minimum wage goes on with no outcome.

At this junction, I can imagine some at the back shrugging. You want to say that you have been poor yourself — as an undernourished undergraduate in Leeds or when you started your own business with limited savings — and therefore admonish those who use their poverty as an excuse.

I have counter-arguments, but to avoid a sidetrack let’s accept the argument you can fight your way out of poverty through application and resilience. That’s you, and all the kudos to you, however most people don’t and widespread poverty, relative poverty, leads to crime. Do you want your loved ones to be at risk because you can’t understand why others can’t be like you? 

Second, only a small minority of those with modest incomes gravitate to a life of crime, the rest of them are like you before trying to rise above their station.

If anything, poorer families are crime victims more often, for the risk factor is less.

My brother’s medium-cost flat was broken into last year. Since there are no guards for the compound, limited or no lighting on most floors’ corridors, and my brother having just a plain grill without a CCTV or security system, he is ripe for the picking when he goes on holiday.

Plus police often forget about reports made by nobodies.

The poor are the easiest targets of criminals.

The stateless people

Within the category of half a million stateless people in Malaysia, mostly ethnic Indians, is the breeding ground for crime and recruitment opportunities for organised crime.

They are usually the poorest of the poor.

Denied schooling and jobs with benefits, they are designed to fail from the start and the state is complicit in this situation. Ongoing for decades if the government decides to resolve it now it effectively closes a faucet of violence.

Document them and school them as you do every Malaysian, after that more will have jobs than not.

But will political expediency override this agenda?

Engage society

The nuclear family in Malaysia after a generation of massive shifts is limping. Relying on families alone to keep crime in check is futile.

Enforcement agencies have to bring the message down. They have to convince the public they care and then act in a way reflective of that. Perhaps they may have to displease their political masters.

Nothing dispirits the public than to witness thousands of policemen dedicated to escort, protect and serenade a sea of VIPs. Was there ever a country with that many VIPs per population in recorded history?

There are few leaders of a stature necessary for police convoys, the rest are choking resources from the real masters of this land, the rakyat.

It may end up being an energy sapping exercise but the police have to persevere and engage and re-engage again, for an assured citizenry worries criminals who then feel that the police will act in the interest of the public. This will lead to less mischief.

But you don’t care, do you?

I imagine Leo lying in a pool of blood and his young wife finding him there in the morning.

But that’s the past, I want to move forward and stop the blame game. Surely the police know that if they went about the crime wave with diligence and focus on serving the people first, second and last, the people would catch wind of it.

People don’t expect miracles they just expect those with enforcing the law to do their jobs.

There are so many elephants in the crime solution room that giving up sounds like a good idea.

But we can’t, for crime is a human predicament that hurts people. In this matter we all need to be on the same side, with the police leading us, not blaming us. There’s no other way.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.