Crime is on the Rise

Pemandu chief executive Idris Jala, yesterday, parroted the myth that the crime rate has been drastically reduced. He pointed instead to “unfortunate” media coverage as the cause for heightened concerns over public safety. In other words, he’s telling the media, don’t report crime! Then if the public don’t read about crime, they will believe that crime is not rampant. But he forgets that we live with crime every day. The other day, at the SUBS student concilium meeting with the University, even the student reps raised the issue of crime in Bandar Sunway. Certainly, the victims of crime will have experienced crime first-hand.

Just ask the two toll clerks Nurijah Rosli, 24, and her colleague Mohd Haffiz Zamri, 26 who were shot and injured in a RM2,000 robbery near Seremban:

Image credit: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/6/15/nation/20120615150442&sec=nation

Or the victims of the morning heists in SRJK (C) Han Ming in Puchong that was reported in The Sun (June 15, 2012, p 04) – kindly note that “heist’ has a plural!

Or the victims of the three robberies/assaults – reported by Facebook users in the past two weeks and who posted accounts of their attacks – this was also reported in The Star today (p 31).

One of these incidents that occurred at approximately 6:00 PM at KL’s Starhill on June 12, 2012 showed the victim’s injuries as can be seen from the Facebook photo on the left.

We can’t just wish away crime – just so, the government feels good about it! You are just so much hot air, Idris Jala!

On Wednesday, my blog post was titled “Crime on the Rise?” Today, my blog post has this title “Crime is on the Rise”. That figures!

But seriously, if we wish to see a reduction in crime – then get the Police to focus on fighting crime and cease performing “political” duties. If this directive is given, I will bet you the country will be relatively safe once more!

Last evening, I was at the MIHRM Toastmasters meeting. There was a grand total of 7 people in attendance; four members and three guests (two of which were non-Toastmasters). With the poor participation, the roles of the General Evaluator, three speech evaluators and Ah Counter were eliminated. Members took on multiple roles and I was tasked to be the Grammarian. And for evaluation of the speeches, we had an Open Evaluation. The meeting also started fifteen minutes late but we still managed to finish on time because we axed some slots. I would score this meeting a 2 out of a 10 – two well-deserved points because the members did not surrender and instead persisted to have the meeting. I wondered aloud how long MIHRM can continue this state of affairs.

A club that is at charter strength but could only draw a fifth of its membership is a club in crisis. Division C is touted as a big success but given the issues many of its clubs like MIHRM encounter, its triumphs sound very hollow. I know now that even Toastmasters can be infected by so much bull.