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Media Statement         
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Saturday): The Parliamentary Caucus on Human Rights and Good Governance will meet on Monday and two items on top of its agenda will be the worsening crime situation in the country particularly in the crime capitals like Johor Baru and Malaysia’s inclusion by the United States Government in “Tier 3” of the worst human trafficking offenders. 

The challenge of the Parliamentary Caucus on Human Rights and Good Governance is to ensure that the increased police presence in Johor Baru after the spate of brutal robbery-gang rape crimes that shook the nation is not short-lived, but sustained and results in daily improvement of the crime situation in Johore and country. 

The secretary of the Parliamentary Caucus on Human Rights and Good Governance, Chong Eng (DAP MP for Bukit Mertajam) has proposed that the caucus visit Johor Baru to hold a public hearing to help the people of Johor Baru ensure that the war against crime will always be the priority concern of the government and police, and not when there is a public outcry after public patience had been stretched to the limit and snapped with one brutal crime after another. 

Although the people of Johor Baru welcome the deployment of an additional 400 cops, 200 police vehicles and establishment of temporary police stations, an equally important question is what strategy is there to ensure the doubling of the productivity of the present 1,800-strong police contingent in Johor Baru. 

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr. Maximus Ongkili said in Miri yesterday that the government wants to raise productivity of the civil servants and enhance the public service delivery system. 

Let this much-promised but yet-to-be-delivered  increase in productivity of the public service delivery system start with the 1,800-strong police contingent, for if their productivity in controlling and reducing crime in Johor Baru can be doubled, there should be an immediate improvement in the law-and-order situation with the additional deployment of 400 more cops.

(23/6/2007)