crime perception - endless possibilites

400 special policemen to tackle perception, or crime?

AUGUST 26, 2013
LATEST UPDATE: AUGUST 26, 2013 07:47 AM

Enough with this garbage about PERCEPTION.

When the public complained continually that law and order had broken down, Putrajaya rolled out dubious figures more than a year ago to say that this was only a PERCEPTION.

The government's love affair with PERCEPTION was recently taken to new heights by Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. He said two special teams of policemen had been formed to tackle crime. They were to report directly to Bukit Aman and not to state or district police contingents.

"It was created to manage perception... that all cops are involved in bribery," he said at a forum on Friday. That word PERCEPTION again.

It is assuring that 400 handpicked policemen have now been given the task of ending the festival of crime in Malaysia. But honesty is always refreshing, so instead of spinning, Zahid should have called it as it is: that bribery is endemic among the men in blue, making it necessary to create two special squads.

There is no PERCEPTION problem. Malaysians know the score. They know that the brazen and wanton actions of gangs 04, 08 and what have you did not happen overnight. The crime bosses did not just wake up one day and have a fleet of Ferraris, mountains of cash to burn and 20,000 soldiers under them.

They were allowed to grow to the size of an army by politicians and cops who were either partners or who chose to look the other way.

But it is comforting that finally the Barisan Nasional government is coming to grips with the reality that our streets are no longer safe and that even living in a gated community with security guards is not the deterrent it used to be.

Even some of the lawmakers who mumbled about PERCEPTION, the chorus of the lame, have stopped it, but only when they themselves became victims of crime. Then, they started mumbling about how Malaysia was not as safe as before.

Just ask Umno bigwig Isa Samad. His guards were overpowered and his family members put through a harrowing time by robbers only a few days ago.

The robbers carted away cash and valuables amounting to RM90,000. And for the record, they were not Indian gangsters just released from Simpang Renggam. They were Indonesians of the same variety who terrorise most of our neighbourhoods.

So spare Malaysians the mumbo-jumbo. Just tackle crime and make the streets safe again.

And leave PERCEPTION alone. Ordinary Malaysians are way ahead of the curve; PERCEPTION is no longer in our daily lexicon. We only deal with REAL SITUATIONS.

And this is the reality.

We know that there is a breakdown of law and order in the country. We know that many cops have handcuffs, guns and batons. What they lack is a moral compass.

We know one other thing too now... by echoing what the everyday man had been saying for between 12 and 18 months earlier about a breakdown in law, the Cabinet ministers, MPs and state assemblymen are only confirming another feature: that the average Malaysian is more intelligent than the people they voted into power. – August 26, 2013.