Media Statement (4) by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Monday, 3^rd August 2009: 

Can Hishammuddin wipe out the endemic crime in Johore Baru’s Fleet Street (Jalan Maju) within a month and wipe out JB’s notoriety as the capital of crime by end-2010 in an expanded NKRAs in fighting crime?

Nanyang Siang Pau today reported that its photo-journalist Loh Chen Chiang is the latest victim of snatch theft in Johore Baru’s “Fleet Street”, Jalan Maju (known also as News Bureau Street) yesterday. He lost a laptop and a 3G adaptor.

He is the fourth Nanyang Sian Pau journalist-victim in the locality within two years – the other three being Tan Sion Yen, Woo Kek Ching and Soh Xin En.

There have been at least 22 victims from snatch theft from the various newspaper offices in the locality, as four Chinese and one English newspapers, Nanyang, Sin Chew, Guangming, China Press and the Star (as well as the circulation office of New Straits Times) are located in Jalan Maju while other newspapers like Kwong Wah and Oriental Daily have their offices nearby.

It is sad and a terrible commentary on the crime situation in Johore Baru that reporters not only report on the galloping incidence of crime, particularly snatch theft in the Johore capital, but are often themselves the victims of these crimes – as if to provide more realistic coverage with first-hand victim reports!

The Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein hails from Johore Baru but he seems to be blissfully unaware that Johore Bahru has become the capital of crime in Malaysia – with everyone in Johore living in fear of crime and the incidence of crime.

Can Hishammuddin wipe out the endemic crime in Jalan Maju in Johore Baru within a month, to make it as the safest street in Johore Baru to liberate Johore Baru journalists from the omnipresent fear of crime?

Can Hishammuddin wipe out the notoriety of Johore Baru as the capital of crime by the end of next year and ask the Cabinet to expand the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) for fighting crime by end-2010 to include wiping out the notoriety of Johore Bahru as the capital of crime in Malaysia?

Hishammuddin’s record and legacy as a Home Minister will depend on his ability to declare war on crime and to roll the tide of crime in the past five years rather than establishing a dubious record of declaring war on defenceless peaceful patriotic Malaysians who exercise their human rights to free expression and assembly to demand the abolition of draconian laws like the Internal Security Act.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor