Media Conference Statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on
Wednesday, 3rd December 2008:
Call on all BN and PK MPs to take a common
stand in Parliament tomorrow to reject Musa Hassan�s ridiculous ploy to
explain away the worsening crime index with a statistical
sleight-of-hand by claiming that it is purely a problem of misperception
Malaysians are shocked that the
Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan is deadly serious with
his ridiculous ploy to explain away the worsening crime index with a
statistical sleight-of-hand by claiming that it is purely a problem of
misperception by Malaysians, tourists and investors.
What is outrageous is that the Cabinet and the National Economic Council
could be browbeaten so easily by the IGP on Tuesday to accept such a
ridiculous ploy, to the extent that this has been adopted as the
official policy position as to be publicly enunciated by the Deputy
Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak two days ago.
Musa has claimed that figures show that Malaysia is a relatively safe
country with 772 crimes for every 100,000 residents in the country. This
ratio compares favourably with Hong Kong where there are 1,166 cases for
every 100,000 residents; Japan 1,569 cases and Australia 4,470 cases.
Taken as a whole, the statistics showed that only Singapore with 704
cases per 100,000 residents had a safer environment.
It is a reflection of the intellectual inadequacy and poverty of the
Cabinet Ministers and National Economic Council members that they could
be so easily bamboozled by the IGP with suspect statistics and data.
The statistics given by the IGP to show that Malaysia is safer than
Japan and Hong Kong are most misleading and unacceptable, as different
definitions are used as to render a proper comparison quite useless.
What is needed is a proper comparison of the crime statistics for the
three countries.
For instance, homicide per 100,000 population is 1.09 cases in Japan,
0.26 cases in Hong Kong but 2.12 in Malaysia; while rape per 100,000
population is 1.62 in Japan, 1.54 in Hong Kong while in Malaysia it is
11.47. For robbery per 100,000 population, it is 4.78 for Japan, 17.56
for Hong Kong while 90.49 for Malaysia.
With these shocking statistics about violent crimes for the three
countries, how could the IGP be so irresponsible as to mislead the
Cabinet and the National Economic Council to believe that Malaysia is
safer than Japan and Hong Kong?
If the Cabinet Ministers and National Economic Council members can so
easily buy the bluff of the IGP, I challenge them to walk the streets of
Johore Bahru and Kuala Lumpur for a day without protection - when they
would have no qualms about safety in walking the streets of Tokyo and
Hong Kong without protection for a day!
I call on all BN and PK MPs to take a common stand in Parliament
tomorrow to reject Musa Hassan�s ridiculous ploy to explain away the
worsening crime index with a statistical sleight-of-hand by claiming
that it is purely a problem of misperception and to demand full police
accountability, responsibility and transparency for the galloping crime
situation in the country where Malaysians, tourists and investors have
lost their fundamental right to be free from crime and the fear of
crime.
*
Lim
Kit Siang, DAP
Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor
http://dapmalaysia.org