Malaysia has gone to the dogs. Not a day goes by without some report in the national dailies on the occurrence of cold-blooded murders, armed robberies, bloody gang fights, gang rapes, road rage, snatch thefts, and child abuse.

And I don't think the government of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is doing enough to tackle this social malaise. But to be fair to the prime minister, he had inherited these social ills from his predecessor, and one just cannot expect him to stamp out the problem in a matter of two or three years.

The two decades under Dr Mahathir Mohamd saw rapid economic development. Spanking new highways were built, crisscrossing the country, the world's tallest buildings were built; foreign direct investments flowed into the country; new factories mushroomed overnight; illegal immigrants arrived in hordes while the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange was turned into a virtual

casino. Those were wonderful and heady times indeed.

But at what cost? It was two decades of social havoc. Money or material wealth became (still is) the new god. Greed, corruption and ugly money and race politics set in. Social and religious values became subordinated to the new god.

Who cares about values or ethics when you can make money at the expense of others? You want better roads? 'No problemo, we'll give you better roads. Just pay your toll.' When the stock market crashed in 1997, we cried foul; we blamed George Soros for our financial sorrows. Did we blame ourselves? Of course not.

Back to the dogs. Some time ago, a young woman's body was found in a box. Some time ago, a young woman was walking back from work at night when she was shoved into a car and taken to a bungalow where she was allegedly gang-raped by some Africans. The Great Safari has come to town.

Sound familiar? Remember Canny Ong? Remember the girl who was raped and then killed by the bus driver after a terror bus ride? There are countless others whose names I can't recall, but the graphic images of the violence perpetrated against these victims remain. And of course, the case last week of the young woman who raped and killed while out jogging.

But I do remember Canny's mother saying that it was fate that killed her daughter. Well, it's more than just fate. Fate is just an explanation for those events that led Canny to being at the wrong place at the wrong time. But what caused the brutal murder?