Kim Quek's math was right. The ministers involved have not gone into the details on the number of the police force, and their underlings should have furnished the public with the details on why the police to population ratio of 1:3000 was provided .

Not all the 80,000 police are on the streets - they have command, administrative personnel, logistics, the dog unit, marine police, forensics, general operations (guys in green), special action unit, air wing, marine police, Federal Reserve Unit, Special Branch, police commandos, signals, transportation units, police band, and of course the traffic cops and lots more.

These units are only deployed in the streets when a crime has been perpetrated or some event is about to take place - for example, to crackdown on the reformasi movement, they use the Federal Reserve Unit.

I will make a simplistic comparison with the army - for every one fighting soldier there will be three soldiers supporting him from the rear, probably the numbers on the streets is something in the region of 25,000, on the assumption the police need less logistics.

Kim Quek was right on the dot when he attributed corruption as the major factor in the decline of the police force's efficiency. There is a saying in the army, 'if attitude can be bought from Singapore in kilos, three quarters of the battle will be won'.

It averages five years for a policeman to go rotten. It has become an accepted culture. The most honest policeman has at one time dipped his fingers in the cess pool. The mentality is 'it is stupid not to do so'. They know what our political elite do, so they have no fear as they have the goods on them.

Our political elite have started the rot which the police are in. Has anyone ever bothered to check the assets of the former police chief who gave Anwar Ibrahim a black eye. That would be an interesting start, anyone?

It is not about broken homes or the poppycock about unattended young ones. Crime happens when there is loot, opportunity and intention.