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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Wednesday) Sunday saw another fatal victim of a snatch-thief – the  avoidable death of 25-year-old sales girl Ng Chew Lim who sustained internal head injuries when she fell down the staircase  in a scuffle with a drug addict  at the Berjaya Megamall shopping centre in Kuantan.

In today’s press, the Inspector-General of Police-designate, Tan Sri Musa Hassan, said that more than 59 per cent of the 10,949 drug addicts arrested so far this year are repeat offenders and that more than 40,000 convicted addicts are on the streets.

Add this to the estimated addicted population in the country and the number stands at about 300,000.

Musa said this number is giving police a headache and they now want this burden lifted off their shoulders. He urged the relevant drug agencies to take charge of rehabilitating addicts, leaving the bigger task of going after traffickers and pushers to them.

He said a large number of murders, rapes, robberies and snatch thefts have been blamed on those under the influence of designer drugs, who “tend to be aggressive and fail to understand the consequences of their actions”.

What is the message? That the times of only the recent past when Malaysians are free from crime and the fear of crime are gone forever, never to return?  That Malaysians must be prepared for crime to strike anytime, any place, regardless of public places, streets and even the privacy of their homes?

At a time when the No. 1 priority of the police must be to devote every available resource  to reduce crime to make every Malaysian feel safe again, whether in the streets, public places or their homes, it is sad and shocking that the police should be wasting time and resources which should be very low down in the police list of priorities –  Penal Code  investigations for criminal defamation  of Malaysiakini’s  six-paragraph newsflash on the “pepper spray” attack on former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in Kota Baru on July 28 implicating the police special operations force.

This is because  the newsflash, which was a “live report”, was corrected in an  updated report an hour later which  did not mention any police involvement, and Malaysiakini has expressed its preparedness to apologise for the error. The Police should have let the matter rest and focus on the national problem of restoring to Malaysians their fundamental  rights to personal safety and to be free from the fear of crime.        

The police should end Malaysiakini investigations and devote total police resources to restore to Malaysians their fundamental rights to be free from crime and the fear of crime.

(09/08/2006)