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Karpal is ready to provide legal representation to  the family of Farid Ibrahim, 16, Form Four student who died at a religious school hostel in Seremban on Sunday  after being repeatedly assaulted by seniors Speech (2) -  DAP Tanjong general election thanksgiving dinner by Lim Kit Siang (Penang,  Saturday): Yesterday, eight 17-year-old students of Sekolah Menengah Agama Dato Klana Petra Maamor, Ampangan, Seremban, was charged in the Seremban magistrate’s court with murdering their schoolmate, 16-year-old Form Four  student Muhammad Farid Ibrahim.  According to a post-mortem report, Farid died of severe head and abdominal injuries.   I have spoken to the DAP Deputy National Chairman and MP for Bukit Glugor, Karpal Singh, and he is ready to provide legal representation to the family of Farid Ibrahim – to hold a watching brief in the trial for the murder of Farid and to represent the family to sue the school, Negri Sembilan state religious department and the Education Ministry for negligence and failing to provide a “crime-free” and safe school environment for students in their educational pursuits. When together with the two newly-elected DAP Negri Sembilan State Assemblymen, Anthony Loke Siew Fook (Lobak), Lim Fui Ming (Bahau) and the DAP Parliamentary candidate for  Rasah Chan Su Sann, I visited the parents of Farid, Ibrahim Maadaah and Norizan Ishak,  in their  Seremban home on Wednesday, I had on behalf of DAP expressed our readiness to extend legal assistance, if this is required by the family, as DAP wants to see the restoration of the right of all parents to ensure that  all students, regardless of race, are safe in schools and hostels.  Although the guilt or otherwise of the accused students is a matter for the courts to decide, there are other aspects of the latest incident of gruesome gangsterism, violence and crime in schools resulting in the death of Farid  which require immediate action, such as:  The responsibility and  culpability of the hotel wardens, the school principal and the Negri Sembilan  Religious Affairs Department (which is responsible for the school) for failing to ensure that the school and hostel are crime-free environments which pose no hazard to safety and very life of students entrusted to their care; The responsibility and culpability of the Education Ministry for not ensuring that all educational institutions in the country have  safe “crime-free” environments  for students  as the disturbing rise of gangsterism, violence and crime is not a recent phenomenon, but had become an increasingly serious problem in the past five years. Utusan Malaysia has on record at  least 35 cases of serious injuries or deaths  in schools in the past five years. In mid-2001, Musa gave the shocking statistics that from 1999 until May 2001, secondary students were involved in 12 cases causing death, 123 rapes and 51 robberies and break-ins.  The Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Mohamed Bakri Omar said this week that crime statistics at the Federal police headquarters showed an increase from 4,200 in 2002 to 5,326 last year of crime cases involving students – a 22.7% increase – which range from drug abuse, thievery, robbery, extortion, rape and murder.  Bakri should give a detailed breakdown of the serious crimes involving students so as to give Malaysians a better picture of the gravity of the problem of gangsterism, violence and crime in schools. Malaysians are entitled to know why the strategy jointly adopted by the Education Ministry and the Police in the past five years to ensure “zero indiscipline” and eradicate the problem of gangsterism, violence and crime in schools  has been such a dismal failure, and what guarantee is there that the back of this problem could now  be broken to restore safe and crime-free environments in schools, colleges and all educational institutions for all students! (3/4/2004) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman & Member of Parliament for Ipoh Timor