PETALING JAYA, July 1 ― The brazen robbery at the home of Minister Khairy Jamaluddin illustrates the reality of Malaysia’s dire crime situation and Putrajaya cannot afford to brush aside concerns over growing lawlessness as a “perception” problem any longer, the DAP’s Tony Pua has said.
On Saturday, the home of the youth and sports minister in Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur was targeted by three robbers who terrorised the minister’s domestic helper during the course of the heist.
“The above, and many other crime incidents in recent months occurring to VIPS, including family members of other ministers and senior police officers, proved that crime is not mere perception in Malaysia,” the DAP national publicity secretary said in a statement late last night.
“If ministers and senior police officers are not safe from crime, then how can ordinary city folks even sleep in peace?”
Pua earlier commiserated with Khairy, saying that his home in Kuala Lumpur was similarly burgled — twice — forcing his family to move to an apartment for the sake of 24-hour security.
Putrajaya’s efficiency unit Pemandu last year reported a 10 per cent reduction in index crime for the first half of the year, along with an 11 per cent reduction the previous year and a 39.7 per cent drop in street crime for the same duration. The media was also blamed for reporting news of such cases.
But these figures were quickly undressed by anonymous and former police officers as well as a crime watchdog who alleged the impressive reductions were nothing more than statistical sleight of hand.
The authorities had defended themselves from such accusations by insisting the numbers were not doctored and that the growing presence of anecdotal crime reports in social media was simply a “perception” rather than fact.
Pua said yesterday, however, that even Khairy did not think the problem was as intangible as the police sought to depict.
“Insiden ini adalah peringatan kepada kita semua bahawa jenayah merupakan masalah serius di negara kita. Masalah ini adalah perkara yang nyata, bukan semata-mata persepsi. (This incident is a reminder to all of us that crime is a serious problem for our country. This problem is a real thing, not just perception),” Pua quoted Khairy as saying.
The break-in at Khairy’s home is the latest in a series of high-profile crimes ― such as the broad daylight murder of a jogger in Bukit Gasing in April, attempted abductions at shopping malls in the Klang Valley last year, and regular shootings and assassinations ― that have a created a climate of fear among Malaysians.
The PJ Utara MP said citizens were increasingly forced to seek refuge from crime by retreating into “war zones” sealed off from public access by illegal boom gates, even as the government continued to divert resources away from anti-crime policing.
“... Budget figures in 2010 showed that the police produced 733,237 reports and security checks by the Special Branch, but only 211,645 criminal investigation papers. So Special Branch produced more than three times as many reports as the [Criminal Investigation Department],” he noted.
The Special Branch is the police’s intelligence unit that gathers information on national threats and subversive activity, but which has been accused of targeting opposition figures for surveillance.
“We must stop lying to ourselves and the government must start admitting the severity of crime in the country. Only and unless the government and the police are willing to accept that fact, there will be no sense of urgency among the authorities to make things better.”
* A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Pua's home that was broken into as being in Petaling Jaya. He has since clarified that the home in question was in Kuala Lumpur.
