Vote against crime
By John Lee (The Malaysian Insider)
SEPT 5 — Yet another by-election is on the way, offering voters another chance to tell Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat just what they think of them. Now, as things stand, a lot of people still can’t see why they should give Pakatan a chance. But as I wrote last week, Pakatan is obviously not any worse than Barisan — and if anything, it will probably be slightly better. It would be hard to top Barisan’s failures as a government; this week, let’s take public peace and safety as an example.
Forget corruption, forget racism, forget the economy. After all, opinion polls suggest what Malaysians are most thankful for is the fact that we live in peace, without fear of harm to our persons or property. Looking at the state of the country today, I don’t care that we lack Singapore’s efficient civil service, Singapore’s supposed lack of ethnic discrimination, or Singapore’s first world economy — all I want is Singapore’s freedom from crime and violence.
We are supposed to be a developed country pretty soon, if I recall correctly what Vision 2020 is all about. My state was declared a “developed state” some years back by our Barisan Nasional mentri besar (who, I am glad to say, now sits in the opposition benches, and who I hope never gets near to any position of power ever again). But in any developed country, do you see middle-class housing estates hiring their own personal security services?
Growing up, I don’t remember a serious concern about crime. I was free to ride my bicycle around my housing area without any worries. But as time goes by, I see a clear trend when it comes to public safety: people are becoming more and more scared.
Every summer, I come home to Malaysia, craving nasi kandar and teh tarik; I am of course rarely disappointed. But I notice how things subtly change every time I come home. The same housing area where I once wandered freely, all by my lonesome, is now fenced off, with all exits and entrances zealously guarded against trespassers. Even the lower middle-class flats where I live—flats which don’t even have lifts—have hired security guards with a fancy card-reader system for residents’ entry and exit.
And can you blame Malaysians for being this paranoid? Canny Ong was raped and murdered in one of the most exclusive shopping centres in one of the most exclusive areas in the country. Everyone living in an urban or suburban area knows someone who fell prey to burglary or snatch theft — even MPs who live in the most elite of suburbs such as YB Nur Jazlan.
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