We have two sets of very diverging crime statistics - one from the police and another from their boss, Deputy Internal Security Minister Mohd Johari Baharum.

The figures are so far apart that Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang has described it as "between heaven and earth".

Johari had earlier revealed that the crime index in Kuala Lumpur's Sentul district in the first three months of the year had soared by 90 percent, with snatch thefts going up by a whopping 693.5 per cent.

However, Federal CID director Christopher Wan had contradicted him, saying that the crime index for the first quarter in Sentul had increased by only 10.1 percent, while snatch thefts dropping by 36.6 percent.

Lim is confounded. "How can the official crime statistics for the same period and locality between the Internal Security Ministry and the police vary so widely?" he asked.

The veteran opposition politician said that Johari had made two serious allegations against the police.

- that the police had "manipulated the crime rate figures to confuse the public"

- that "Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi may have also been given the wrong figures"

"Malaysians do not want any cover-up but insist that the whole truth about the real picture about the crime situation should be fully made public," demanded Lim.

Only 57 cops in Sentul

He added that the public spat between Johari and the police is most "distressing and demoralising" to public confidence in the system of governance headed by Abdullah.

"It is time that Abdullah end his 'hands-off and mind-off" approach as prime minister, internal security minister and finance minister."

He ticked off Abdullah for failing to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission to help "create an efficient, incorruptible, professional police service to end the unchecked crime wave".

Lim urged the prime minister to go to Parliament next Monday to give a full ministerial statement on the real crime situation in the country.

Meanwhile, another opposition leader lamented that the police did not have sufficient numbers to fight crime in Sentul.

PKR information chief Tian Chua said that during a dialogue last year with Sentul residents, the police acknowledged their lack of human resources.

"They have only 57 police officers in an area of 500,000 people," decried Chua.

Sentul registered 5,809 of crime cases last year. Chua said the situation had deteriorated to the extend that some residents in the area resorted to hiring private security for protection.

He urged Johari to increase police numbers in the area instead of blaming the force.