KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 — Good governance is vital to curb crime, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today as the number of shooting cases continues to mount across the country.

The state leader pointed to what he described as the success of the Penang administration’s principles of Competency, Accountability and Transparency (CAT), saying it could also be applied to combat crime.

“The problem of crime that is worsening can be tackled with the same formula in order to keep Penang’s status as being among the safest states in Malaysia,” Lim said in a statement.

He urged Malaysians to unite against crime, saying that they should not be divided by political games.

“Whether we are Malays, Chinese, Indians, Iban or Kadazan, our common enemy is from the race of crime, while all of us are from the race of crime victims. Unite the people to fight criminals!” he said.

Acknowledging the police force’s shortage of manpower and resources, Lim yesterday said the state will employ more workers to aid the police in monitoring the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed throughout the state.

He said the shootings may be related to criminal gangland rivalry but also indicated a deteriorating crime situation in the state.

He also said that the Penang government will install 125 additional CCTVs — 70 on the island and 55 on the mainland — at the cost of RM3 million.

Penang currently has 60 CCTVs on the island and 44 on the mainland.

The state has seen three separate shootings in the space of two days earlier this week, bringing the total number of shooting cases there to 19 for this year.

On Thursday, a 37-year-old former convicted drug dealer, K.Veerappan, was shot dead in broad daylight at about 11.15am in his car at a traffic light junction at Anson Road.

Earlier the same day, an unidentified gunman shot 10 times at a bungalow in Jalan Utama, shattering a window but nobody was injured.

At around midnight yesterday, a 43-year-old club bouncer was shot at seven times and injured on his thigh outside a night club at Datuk Keramat.