DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang today urged the government to address the crisis of confidence that has arisen over public safety following the kidnapping and murder of Canny Ong.

Lim said the case had brought about national outrage focusing on the deteriorating state of public security, as evident from the rising crime rate in the country.

"The crime rate measured by crimes per thousand population almost doubled from 3.8 in 1990 to 7.1 in 2000. It has also worsened in the past three years," he said in a press statement.

Lim said the government should set up a commission on public security and citizen safety to report on the rising crime rate and address police efficiency so as to make public places safe again.

He said the call by Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung to beef up the police force with more personnel and better equipment is also insufficient reassurance as the ministry had clearly been complacent in face of the rising crime rate.

"The gravity of the situation and the complacency of the police could be gauged by the helpless response from the police chief of an urban district to complaints of increasing crime rate," he said.

High-profile cases

Lim was referring to a DAP-organised dialogue between the police and Petaling Jaya residents in March in response to the rising number of snatch thefts in the area.

PJ police chief Sheikh Mustafa Sheikh Ahmad had reportedly said he had given up jogging outdoors as he was concerned of being harmed or robbed.

Over the past few months, several high profile personalities have also been targets of criminals.

In March, MP Chong Eng (DAP-Bukit Mertajam) was robbed twice, once in Bukit Mertajam and once in PJ, within a 40-hour period. Lim himself was also robbed and injured twice over the past 12 months.

In addition, MP Chew Mei Fun (MCA-PJ Utara), MCA deputy president Chan Kong Choy and former welfare minister, Tun Fatimah Hashim, 79, all had their homes burgled this year.

When contacted, Chong said the home ministry had reported that from January 2000 to May 2003, at least 148 police officers also had been victims of crimes such as home burglary, snatch theft and robberies.

However, she said the home ministry had also appeared to be reluctant in addressing the problem as evident from their reply to her queries during the current parliamentary session.

"Every time I raise these issues relating to public security, the ministers are very defensive of the police. During the last session when I raised the issue after my experience, (Deputy Home Minister) Zainal Abidin Zin told me that I got robbed because I was not careful. He said the fact that I was robbed twice showed how careless I was," she said.

Differing ratios

Chong said home ministry officials had also been inconsistent when reporting on statistics relating to the police force.

"When I asked for the police to people ratio in March, Zainal said that it was 1:292. However, (Deputy Home Minister) Chor Chee Heung now says that it is 1:3,000," she said.

Chor was reported in The Star today as saying that the police force currently has a strength of 80,000 including non-uniformed personnel. He also said that the ratio is one police officer to 3,000 people in Malaysia as compared to other countries where it averages one police to 250 residents.

Chong's emergency motion to debate the problem of rising crime cases in Parliament was also rejected by the speaker on Thursday.

The speaker had said in a written reply that the motion was neither urgent nor specific.

However, all 10 women MPs issued a joint statement urging the police to declare war against crime.

The six BN parliamentarians and four opposition representatives said the victims of rape, abduction and robbery were predominantly women.

"If these cases were not curbed immediately, all of us will become victims regardless of gender, race, religion and political belief," said spokesperson Napsiah Omar (BN-Kuala Pilah) during a press conference.

Inconsistencies

Issues of public safety have once again dominated media coverage following the shocking murder of 29-year-old Canny Ong last week.

Ong was abducted from the parking lot of a shopping complex in Bangsar and driven around for several hours before she was raped and killed.

Her charred body was later discovered in a culvert off Jalan Klang Lama.

However, several unexplained questions remain over the incident. Readers of malaysiakini had written to point out several conflicts and inconsistencies in reports of the case.

Among others they queried why two policemen who had reportedly stopped the suspect while Canny was still alive had failed to raise an alert after the suspect drove off in a panic after handing his and Canny's identity cards to the officers.

There is also uncertainty over the actual number of suspected kidnappers. It was earlier reported that Canny had been abducted by three men but this was later revised to a one-man crime.