‘Jobs not bullets stop crime’
(Malaysian Mirror) – Like the soaring crime rate in Malaysia, public anger against the police is also on the rise, said Klang MP Charles Santiago.
He suggested that the government resolves crime from a development perspective rather than the – tried and failed – law and security approach.
This, he added, would involve creating jobs, offering skills training and providing loans and small contracts to vulnerable youths, especially the Indian youths.
Santiago said essentially, the government at the Federal, state and local levels have to create an enabling environment with a view of creating opportunities for the poor and lower middle classes to be socially and economically mobile.
“The present ‘trigger- happy’ approach is not going to solve the crime problem that confronts us,” he said in a statement here Friday.
‘Random shooting is a fact’
He cited the incident in Taman Klang Utama, where police shot dead five suspected robbers in a shootout after a high speed car chase at 12.30am on Sunday.
He cited the incident in Taman Klang Utama, where police shot dead five suspected robbers in a shootout after a high speed car chase at 12.30am on Sunday.
Overcome by grief over the death of her brother, who was one of those shot and killed in the incident, a 31-year-old housewife and two of her children are now fighting for their lives after consuming paraquat, a weed killer.
Santiago said besides the woman’s 24-year-old brother, a 17-year-old boy was also killed.
He said while those shot were robbery suspects, the action of the police had amounted to being ‘trigger-happy.’
He said Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein might not agree with accusations that the police have been indulging in random shooting “but this is a fact.”
“The police force has come under fire one too many times for abusing its power.
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