When civic-conscious citizens turn criminal

My community is turning “gated”. It started with simple security patrols many years ago, expanded to closures of certain roads with crude barricades earlier this year, and now, proper boom-gates and guard-posts are being constructed. All thanks to dedicated community leaders and supportive residents.

I watch with mixed feelings. On one hand, I certainly feel much safer with the enhanced security scheme, which I have supported from Day 1 of its humble beginnings. On the other hand, I am conscious that we are erecting barriers on public roads, which is a crime.

True, the residents’ association is closing roads with only the bests interests of the community in mind. And the authorities have adopted a hands-off attitude.

But where do we draw the line? Today we barricade a public road with the best of intentions. What next tomorrow? Who decides which intentions are noble enough for the law to be broken? Remember the political party which took over a playground to build a “service centre”? It claimed “good intentions”.

There are two big-picture issues here. One is the failure of the Barisan Nasional government to protect our communities. Crime used to be something that happened to someone else. Now, I personally know people who have been robbed, burgled and mugged. I am sure I am not atypical of the average city-dweller. Our police force needs to be far more effective.

The second issue is rising lawlessness. Laws are necessary for society to function. Laws must be enforced and people must be convinced that justice is even-handed for society to work. At this point, normally law-abiding citizens are now teaching their children that some laws can be ignored if our “intentions are good”. This fear of crime has forced civic-conscious Malaysians to turn criminals themselves, blockading public roads to protect the safety of themselves and their families. What next?

Khir Toyo and family spent RM1.7m meeting Prince Charming and Cinderella

The Selangor Select Committee on Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) concluded its public inquiry into the expenses of the now-defunct Balkis on Wednesday, March 31.

Balkis was the welfare and charity organization set up by the wives of Selangor’s elected representatives during Barisan Nasional (BN) rule. It was hurriedly dissolved after March 8, and RM10m was transferred to Bakti, the charity organization for wives of federal government ministers. The legality of that dissolution and cash transfer is also being questioned, but that’s another issue.

Right now, I am disheartened by the absence of public outrage and mainstream media coverage on the abuse of power and privilege unearthed by the Committee. Consider just a few of the revelations:

1) State investment agency Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB) spent almost RM1m on a Dec 2004 Eurodisney trip for then Selangor menteri besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, his wife, their three children AND maid;
2) Khir must have hankered for the real thing after seeing the European copy, so off he went to Disneyland in Orlando, Florida, in Jan 2008, just 2 months before historic March 8. Again, his wife, their three children and maid went along. Cost – about RM650,000 for their entire US jaunt.

PNSB CEO Datin Khairiyah Abu Hassan told the Committee that the trips were in preparation for setting up an 8 hectare theme park in Bagan Lalang. A very flimsy reason indeed which collapsed under further questioning when it transpired that Khir and entourage visited Disney as ordinary public guests, there were no meetings with Disney senior executives or technical personnel and no reports were submitted after the trips!

But where is the public outrage, and where is the disciplinary action by UMNO? The very senior UMNO politician has not denied spending RM1.7m of public money on a private family jaunt. RM1.7m is 68 low-cost houses; it can keep nearly 300 families out of hard-core poverty for a year. And that RM1.7m is just one of numerous other infractions. If UMNO is serious about reform, it needs to send a clear message. Abuse of power will not be tolerated. Transgressors will be expelled.

It doesn’t seem to be happening.

Also, what about the other Barisan Nasional coalition members? Silence implies consent, or at the very least, acquiescence.

Ask what politics can do for you and your family, not what you can do for the people sounds like an appropriate BN slogan.

5x higher chance of being robbed, 7x raped, 8x murdered .. and we're focusing on rear seat belts??!!

I’ve just been reminded that back-seat passengers will have to belt-up starting 1 Jan. Otherwise the driver stands to be fined RM300.

Our authorities have their priorities all skewed. How important is this in the overall scheme of things? Surely our overburdened and undermanned police force has more important things to do than to harass the family man taking his family out for an evening drive? Like, for example, curbing snatch thieves, or burglaries, or Mat Rempit …. The crime rate in Malaysia is high. Here are some statistics per 100,000 population, as pointed out by Lim Kit Siang and Tony Pua:

Robbery: Malaysia 90.49 cases per 100,000 population, Japan 4.78, Hong Kong 17.56
Rape: Malaysia 11.47, Japan 1.62, Hong Kong 1.54
Homicides: Malaysia 2.12, Japan 1.09, Hong Kong 0.26

Put into layman's terms, a Malaysian is 5 times more likely to be robbed than a Hong Konger. The more serious the crime, the higher your chances - 7x better chances to be raped and 8x a murder victim! Higher chances are great if like me, you were trying for the Toto Jackpot, but certainly not to be a crime victim.

Not wearing rear seat belts is a personal issue. If Mum and Dad decide their precious ones don't need to belt up, that is their own decision and they can live with the consequences, if any.

Also, thanks to our horrible public transport and outmoded auto policy, many of us don't have alternatives. Large numbers of our national car, Proton, were fitted with only two rear seat belts when manufactured. Kudos to Proton for agreeing to retrofit rear centre seat belts on these cars, totalling 226k units made between 2004 and 2008, including 82k units of the Gen 2. But the whole exercise will take 13 months to complete! So what’s the family of 5 going to do until their car is fixed? Force someone to stay home every time the family goes out? Hardly great. One would think tough times like today call for even more family unity.

Most families would understandably decide to take the risk of being caught. Which brings me to the core issue – sowing the seeds of law-breaking. Break one law and breaking others become easier.

So how about this? Creating new laws is useless if they’ll not be obeyed anyway. Parliament should take a break from law-making. Our MPs can use the time to help monitor enforcement of existing laws instead. No more new laws until the existing ones are complied with.