http://dapmalaysia.org
Nurul’s gruesome and horrific gang-rape/murder and the worsening Public Safety Index should be top agendas of the Police Royal CommissionMedia Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Penang, Monday): The gruesome, heinous and horrific gang-rape and murder of 10-year-old Nurul Huda Abdul Ghani in Tanjung Kupang, Gelang Patah, Johore on Saturday and the worsening Public Safety Index in the country should be top agendas for the Police Royal Commission. There should be a national soul-searching as to what has gone wrong with 46 years of Malaysian national education system and nation-building that such inhuman crimes against a 10-year-old Std. Four girl could be perpetrated, not by one person but by three persons. Coming in the midst of the trial of another horrific crime concerning the abduction-rape-murder of Canny Ong, it is further testimony that victims of crime, including sex crimes, come from all races and religions, whether Nurul Huda Abdul Ghani, Canny Ong, or the rape and murder of Nor Suzaily Mukhtar four years ago and Form Five student Audrey Melissa in Kuala Lumpur in 1999. There is now nation-wide outrage at the gruesome and heinous crime perpetrated against Nurul Huda just as there was nation-wide disgust and horror last June over the Canny Ong crime. But will this public outrage be as short-lived and unproductive as the one over the Canny Ong crime, to be quickly forgotten without any improvement in citizen security and the banishment of the fear of crime in public places and even in the privacy of the homes, until the perpetration of another atrocious crime? Last June, DAP had called for a blue-ribbon commission of eminent Malaysians to conduct nation-wide hearings to allow Malaysians from all walks of life to give voice to their fears about mounting crime and their demands for the restoration of an environment of public security, and to make recommendations on the measures that should be taken by the government and the nation to roll back the rising crime rate in the country. This should now be a major term of reference of the Police Royal Commission which was announced by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi three weeks ago. (19/1/2004) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman |