KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 – Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi rebutted allegations today that the police are manipulating crime statistics, pointing out that the figures are computer-generated.
The home minister also insisted that the increase in crime this month was caused by the abolition of the Emergency Ordinance (EO), noting that 2,600 hardcore and organised criminals are now out on the streets.
“The allegations that the police are manipulating the crime statistics are not true at all because they use a computer system,” said Ahmad Zahid while winding up the Royal Address in Parliament here today.
He also stressed that the spirit of the EO needed to be retained in the new security law, after Padang Serai MP N. Surendran from PKR pointed out that there are other countries which battle crime without resorting to detentions without trial.
“The spirit of the law has to be seen,” said Ahmad Zahid. “Better policing, yes, but cooperation is needed from the general public.”
Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua from the DAP pointed out that the index crime was highest in 2008 and 2009 while the EO was still in place, but fell 76 per cent last year after the controversial law – which allows for detention without trial – was repealed.
Index crime comprises violent and property crimes like murder, robberies and burglaries.
“The police and the IGP still have no strong evidence that crime is caused by the repeal of the EO,” said Pua in response in Parliament, referring to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP).
Ahmad Zahid insisted, however, that criminals released after the repeal of the law, which was enacted in 1969 following the May 13 race riots, were fighting over territories.
“What’s happening is something that needs cooperation from the general public,” said the Bagan Datoh MP. “Don’t just talk about figures.”
Ahmad Zahid said last Sunday that there has been proposals to embed preventive detention provisions into the proposed law that will replace the EO, a second draft of which will be ready by September.
He also said today that the police have set up a Crime Prevention Department to “engage people” in tackling crime.
The police denied last February manipulating national crime figures after crime watchdog MyWatch accused the authorities of publicly releasing lower figures than the actual numbers.
MyWatch had highlighted a letter by then federal police CID chief Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin – now the deputy IGP – dated October 13, 2011 that stated 17,882 cases of robbery without firearms and snatch theft had occurred from January to October 2011 compared to the published crime index of 7,324 cases; and 43,792 house break-ins and burglaries in the same period compared to the 30,200 publicly released figure.
