Media statement by Tony Pua Kiam Wee in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 2^nd July 2012:

Cabinet must reject the proposal by Asas Serba outright to prove Najib's promise to "not tolerate rent-seeking and patronage"

Selangor Deputy Chief Police Officer (CPO) Datuk A Thaiveegan had curiously blamed the recent increase in crime on the repealed Emergency Ordinance (EO), which resulted in the "the mass release of suspected criminals from Simpang Renggam detention centre," as reported by Malaysiakini.com.

He even speculated that "...we see there is a rise in crime (recently) because they've been in (detention) for too long, they need 'exercise', so they come out and immediately they carry out their activities."

Datuk A Thaiveegan's admission of rising crime in Selangor flies directly in the face of the Home Ministry and PEMANDU's dogged insistence that the Government's fight against crime is successful and correspondingly the crime index has fallen significantly.

Minister in Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Idris Jala was quoted in The Star on Sunday 24 June 2012 that, "if the [crime] statistics are not convincing, perhaps then we should try to dwell into how the police were able to bring the crime rates down in a specific area, for example, one of the hotspots".

He further called on the media to play its role in fighting crime and help arrest the "doom and gloom" by reporting on solved cases and not sensationalising crime by repeatedly reporting the same news.

At the same time, However, Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had said that the recent cases of violent crime were "isolated". He said "blowing a few cases out of proportion would create a perception that Malaysia was unsafe country, when official data showed otherwise".

Hence the Government has not only provided contradictory and piecemeal statistics on crime incidence which do not provide a complete picture of crime in the country, we now have the Selangor police and the Federal Ministers telling different stories to the public.

Given the complete lack of transparency as well as the sheer lack of consistency in the state of crime in the country, it is not a surprise that the Malaysian public do not trust the authorities. What makes it worse is the Government¡¯s refusal to acknowledge the fears the men and women-on-the-street face when they are in or out of their houses.

While the Federal Ministers had placed the blame on media and perception, the Selangor Police's blame in the repeal of the EO is even more comical. The Deputy CPO is admitting that they lacked the competence to solve criminal cases, and that they have to throw every suspect into detention without trial, innocent or otherwise, in order to cut down crime.

We call upon the Government to get its act together. The persistent refusal by the Home Ministry to provide detailed crime statistics, even at the official request of elected Members of Parliament, smacks of cover up and manipulation. The respective authorities must hence stop the denial syndrome and start taking concrete measures to tackle the rising spate of crime, especially in Selangor.

* Tony Pua Kiam Wee, DAP National Publicity Secretary & MP for Petaling Jaya Utara