The government and police cannot be trumpeting falling crime statistics and blaming the spike in violent crimes on the abolition of the Emergency Ordinance (EO) at the same time, according to  DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang .

"The inspector-general of police (Khalid Abu Bakar) and the Home Minister (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) cannot blow hot and cold but must be consistent whether Malaysia is a safe country or not," he said int a press statement yesterday.

He said the government had boasted that the country's crime rate had fallen by 26.8 percent since 2009 and is the safest and most peaceful country in South-East Asia according to the Global Peace Index, but is now suddenly blaming the rise in violent crimes on doing away with the EO.

"If the release of the 2,000 suspected hardened criminals under the EO in September 2011 was responsible for the spike in crimes, why is this not shown in the crime statistics of the police.

"...which instead claimed that there had been a reduction on overall street crime and index crime by 41.3 percent and 7.6 percent respectively in 2012 as compared to 2011?" he said.

lim kit siang pc 070513 03 Lim ( right ) asked whether this acknowledgement which included organised crime syndicates only happened after Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's speech on the war against crime last month.

"Less than a year ago, the then Home Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein strenuously refuted assumptions that increased crime was due to the release of the EO inmates.

Tripping over one's foot

"Was Hishammuddin right when he said this last July or was he misleading the Malaysian public?" he asked.

Furthermore, he said the government had also given an assurance that the freed detainees were being monitored and would not return to their old habits but now the government was fingering them for the spat of violent crimes.

Lim called on the police to come clean on the state of crime in the country to inspire confidence in the force.

"If they want full public co-operation in the battle against crime, they should take the Malaysian public into their confidence and share these information with them," he said.

There have been several bold public robberies of customers at restaurants in the last few months especially in the Cheras area with the most recent occurring at a clinic on Thursday.

Three parang-wielding men had barged into the clinic, demanding the valuables of the customers there including a Tan Sri who whipped out a pistol and fired on them when they tried to attack him.

The group immediately fled the scene but one died some 30 metres away after taking gun-shots in the knee, buttock and stomach.