MARCH 24 — I ask this because last night was difficult for me. My partner was commuting and since I was elsewhere in the city I said to her to wait outside the Masjid Jamek station for me.
They have a McDonald’s, they have a Burger King adjacent and since it is downtown KL and metres away from where the city was founded, the epicentre of the city’s heart, I thought it would be alright. That was 9.45pm.
My scheduled appointment, and it was an important one, dragged on. I asked her to wait a little longer there, and that’s when it got messy.
By the time I got to her before 11pm, she was distraught. The McDonald’s had closed, the convenience store clerk wanted her out of the only well-lit place around and a man harassed her while she stood outside.
I fear if I got there 15 minutes later it would not only be her tears I would have had to deal with.
So Kuala Lumpur, what has become of you when the night falls, or is it about the same in the day?
I ask this, because I did not know how to explain my city’s present frailty, the city I grew up in.
This is not a diatribe against the police, the mayor, the minister for the city, the various agencies related to security, community and urban renewal, this is more than that. I am asking for my sense of peace and tranquillity, as do millions of city dwellers.
It is not about politics, it is about acting within our capacity to keep our people safe. Perhaps I am overplaying this, but can I know how many would be comfortable having a member of their family, let alone a female member, alone along that stretch at night?
Vigilance and resolute commitment
There is danger in every city in the world, every street corner can have lurking elements. But some cities are substantially safer than others, despite isolated incidences, and this is evidenced by society’s more vulnerable — like children, women and the elderly — attesting to being secure at all hours in those cities.
As my ex-classmate says, he has no worries leaving his seven-year-old daughter all alone in the neighbourhood playground in their Japanese suburb. In my Cheras suburb today, parents won’t let their male children twice the age of my pal’s kid walk home unaccompanied from the neighbourhood store. Where have we ended up, and how have we been so negligent about something so clearly important to us?
All democracies have laws. And non-politically related security laws are similar. The issue emanates from whether those laws have any effect in reality.
The laws have to be present. That is what police patrols do. Men and women of law as agents of the law being present where the community is to reassure them that the law is where they are. I am not convinced that enough police are patrolling our living spaces.
However, I am convinced that there is never a year in the recent past that I’m not informed that I am safer. How safe am I if parents are increasingly paranoid and societies erecting fencing and barricades along with private security?
The second component is there has to be awareness that the law will be enforced. This involves intervention, arrests, prosecution, conviction and rehabilitation. Criminal tendencies are disincentivised if they believe there would be severe and immediate repercussions from enforcement agencies like the police.
The third, and perhaps glaringly missing, enforcement agencies have to be persuaded that their jobs and pay are determined by societal reaction and satisfaction. That does mean what it means, there has to be more democracy. When the vote decides government expenditure which translates to priority, only then the public’s need for adequate security is met.
The public does not need to be persuaded that they need more help be more secure, the challenge is to enable the public to have the voice and power to ensure their need is met. Would detractors of local elections change their mind if their own safety is at risk without democratic driven accountability?
Can it upset you enough?
I know the Masjid Jamek area. On protest days, there is no shortage of police personnel over there, some brought from other states to assist with public safety. The public’s safety in those instances are not to be undermined according to those in power. Don’t compromise the rakyat, they will monotonously repeat.
Why protesters consider Masjid Jamek iconic and my agitation at the lack of security at that area after dark are similar.
Other than being the city’s birthplace, it is where the courts used to reside. It is 200 metres away from Dataran Merdeka, the country’s independence square. It is ironically another stone’s throw away from the national police headquarters. One kilometre the other direction it is the city’s police headquarters. It is 1.5 kilometres away from Parliament House. Four hundred metres away from KL City Hall. The Malaysian Bar Council is a 200 metre-short cut away around Central Market.
It is as centre of the city as it gets.
During the day, the sheer number of people traversing the spot provides security. It is not law enforcement but rather human crowds trying to get to their cubicles, business appointments and lunch meets that ensure general security.
That is assuring and depressing at the same time.
When did general safety become a low priority issue?
And if people cannot feel safe in so central a spot in the evening, how much more dangerous do other suburbs, industrial parks and business zones become in the evening, when there are fewer people about?
Again, this goes beyond politics. There is a serious need to be honest about the state of security in the country, real security. There is a serious need to get serious about it.
Before someone scratches off KL and night from the headline, and just ask it, is Malaysia safe? That's keeping me up at nights.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
