The Home Ministry has allegedly provided two widely conflicting sets of crime statistics in separate parliamentary replies to two MPs, claimed Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching.

Teo said both Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong and Pengkalan Chepa MP Dr Izani Husin had asked for the 2013 crime statistics, but were each given different answers in their parliamentary replies.

“How can we have two different sets of crime statistic for the year 2013? And the difference between these two sets of statistics is huge.

“Instead of being busy probing Pakatan members of Parliament under Sedition Act, can our home minister spare some time to explain to us the discrepancies?” she said in a statement today.

Between the two sets of the statistics, the crime figures received by Liew were higher in each category.

The ministry recorded a total of 147,062 incidents index crimes compared to Izani’s figure of 99,613 incidents - a difference of 47,449 incidents, or 47.6 percent higher.

 

Index crimes include violent crimes such as rape, murder, and robbery, and property crimes such as theft, snatch theft and break-ins.

By percentage, the alleged discrepancies ranges from 23.5 percent for armed robbery (21 incidents versus 17 incidents), to 51 percent for snatch theft (2,118 incidents vs 1,403 incidents).

“Parliament is an important avenue for members of parliament to extract information. Every sitting we submit 15 written questions to Parliament. Not to mention all the issues and questions we raise during the debate.

“Our intention is none other than hoping to bring back some useful and accurate information for our voters.

"However, it is sad to notice that replies and answers provided by the ministers are not always accurate,” Teo said.