MGG Pillai Commentary View

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A deputy minister pontificates on crime en route to the UMNO supreme council elections

THE DEPUTY INTERNAL SECURITY minister, Dato' Noh Omar, is a worried man. There is crime in Malaysia but it is not a crime-infested nation. The media should not give the wrong impression and portray it as what is not. This must stop, he thundered when he presided at the start of the new TV3 crime drama series, 'Detektif' (Detective).

The statistics show Malaysia as a law abiding nation with an efficient police force that resolves murders and other crimes swiftly, and is three times better than Interpol's target of solving 20 per cent of all cases filed.

He justifies it with statistics, which the New Straits Times reports today (05 August 2004). But all he proves is Mark Twain's aphorism of three kinds of lies: Lies, Statistics, and Damned Statistics. What Dato' Noh said appears on page 8 today. But to reach that news item, you have to wade through eight pages of crimes that are the staple these days of Malaysian newspapers. When the media's main role is to divert attention away from politics, reports of crime in excruciating detail is one way to do it.

But what Dato' Noh reveals is more frightening picture than we could have imagined: 1,821 murders between January 2001 and April 2004 (40 months). Or to put it another way, 47 murders a month, or three murders every two days. This is bad enough. But when he then says that only 60 per cent of these murders are solved, it follows that about 20 are not. In the first four months of 2004, there were 172 murders.

He does not however tell the whole story. The Interpol figures refer to all crimes, but he mentions only the murders. Should he not tell us what percent of all crimes solved are resolved? On anecdotal evidence, it would be worse than the Interpol 'benchmark'. It is now accepted as folklore that the police will not investigate most crimes, and tell the complainant so. They do not want to get involved in domestic violence.

Many reports are filed, but no action is taken. Look at the police reports the former deputy prime minister and others filed against cabinet ministers. None has been attended to. if the reports are false, then who filed the reports can be charged for false reports. That route is not taken. It is safe to assume, there is truth in them. And the police do not see why they should help those the government does not like to get away with successes like this.

What Dato' Noh had to say was both frightening and important enough to have had front page coverage. We know why he made the statement. There is an election next month for which he cannot campaign, he is a candidate for the UMNO supreme council, and he must make himself known to the electors in any way he can. The NST no doubt understands this only too well. It has its own list on who ought to be in it. And did not think it a good idea to give Dato' Noh's views prominence. So they relegated him to an irrelevant spot on page 8!

Besides, the deputy minister's comments are not as 'juicy' or 'exciting' as the front page story where this should have been: the detention, not arrest, of a 'notorious' criminal. The NST is not alone. All newspapers and media in the mainstream resort to diversionary coverage of crime. The heavy diet of crime, especially horrific ones like murders, are reported in loving details, often in isolation, does give even the casual reader that this country is crime-infested.

When newspapers make it front-page news, or when some publicity can be extracted out of it, the Inspector-General of Police and senior police officers rush to the scene of the crime, especially if it happens in the Klang Valley, to direct operations, sidelining the officers in nominal charge. Their presence alone suggests the crime is worse than it is. When there was an outbreak of attacks on tourists, a tourst police was set up; when VIP and diplomatic residences were targetted, a special VIP force is set up.

It should have been left to the police to make internal units to resolve crimes as they surface. When you establish special units, it is an admission the police cannot handle it in its stride, and needs a special force. A police force takes that route only when matters get out of hand, it is a serious threat, and the only way is a special police unit. But once it is set up, there is no more talk of it, and soon it reverts to the malaise and irrelevance that the police force itself is fast becoming. One cannot decide if it is another form of featherbedding.

When all effort is made to show Malaysia is crime-infested, with the police taking the lead to show it is, and diplomats are robbed and burgled with abandon, the damage it does to Malaysia cannot be underestimated. This goes into the briefing papers of foreign and trade ministries overseas, and the idea of Malaysia as a crime-infested nation takes root, even in countries where crime is worse.

Can this be reversed? Of course, it can but it is a long haul. Is there a desire to? No. Too many statements and policies are announced without thought and to get themselves into the public eye, that statements of public order or national policy is just a means to that publicity. And with it an arrogance that those in office know best. Others have nothing to contribute. They were not elected.

But the time has come when the government can do with help. It is too proud to ask. And tries to get it by the spurious campaigns and charades which only shows in the end how disastrous the government's machinery is. Too many rapes, let's castrate the rapist or send him to five or six life terms. Failure in government policy and attitude is compensated with decades of imprisonment and caning.

This band-aid law enforcement would in the end lead to a lawless society. One hopes it would not. But there is nothing to suggest that things would get better if the government does not take hold of itself. No one in the present government can. That's the tragedy. Meanwhile, Dato' Noh can shout till the cows come home that Malaysia is not a crime-infested country. No one would believe him. But the damage is done.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com