AUG 3 — Given the apparent abundance of shootings and gun killings of late, the authorities are becoming very concerned. But perhaps of greater concern to Malaysians is just what the authorities are concerned about.

They are not so much afraid that one more of us may become the next unfortunate victim of such a crime.

Instead, they are worried that we are becoming jaded to gun murders now splashed so liberally across news sites and papers, fearful that this oh-so-rare event is fast losing its mystique.

Today, national news agency Bernama published a piece titled “Are Malaysians in danger of getting used to gunshot murders?” And in it, the writer wrote that killings with guns are facing the same ignominious fate as the now-prosaic murder by parang.

“Today, such cases are seen as nothing unusual and very much in the same perspective as a snatch theft, motorcycle robbery and muggings,” the article said.

Really? Who among us no longer fears being hacked to bits going down to the corner store, simply because this is now apparently so common?

Does ubiquity somehow confer immunity?

Just because we are now also likely to be shot does not in any way mitigate the dread of one day having a blade swung at your head simply because you were too slow in surrendering your valuables.

We live in perpetual fear but the silence is not borne of apathy; in fact, there is not even silence. Petaling Jaya residents, for instance, are lobbying noisily for an auxiliary police force.

But if it is silence the authorities choose to hear, then it is the muffled sound of frustration, not indifference.

Attempting to manipulate this fear, to heighten and to worsen it for whatever political purpose — preventive detention being chief among them — not only reeks of the insincerity in tackling the cancer now eating into the nation, but strikes right at the heart of all those who have fallen victim to these and the myriad crimes plaguing us all.

Yesterday, the problem was that the “perception” of crime was too high; now, they worry that it is too low.

Between one and the other, ordinary Malaysians are trapped in a comedy in which you don’t know whether you should laugh or cry.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.