After a serious of violent crimes in Johor Baru, community leaders there are calling for a 100,000 signatures campaign to get the government to resolve crime and restore a sense of security to the people.

This morning, Penang DAP leaders held a press conference to highlight the problem. Chong Eng, who is a vocal spokesperson on crime and security in Parliament, called on Prime Minister to establish the IPCMC to address the various concerns of the people when dealing with the police.

I quoted the Royal Commission report which showed that 86 percent of the respondents from all races are extremely worried about crime happening in their neighbourhood. In fact we read about crime happening every day in the newspaper.

I also took the statistics from the Royal Police website to illustrate our concern that it is no longer safe in Malaysia.

The people are facing a double jeopardy. First the crime rate has increased by over 12 percent but the success rate in resolving crime reported has dropped by a whopping 12 percent at 36.8 percent. This is way below the international average of about 48 percent.

The past few years PDRM had managed to achieve about 48 percent in resolving crimes reported. I am not happy with this success rate. It means 52 percent of the crimes are not solved and the victims of such crimes have to suffer in vain.

But whenever I raised this matter in Parliament, the then Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar would justified that our success rate is on par with international standard and there should not be a matter of concern. This is rubbish as thousands would feel disappointed that the culprits who robbed, raped, stole and made crimes are left scot-free. (Well, recently Noh’s brother was charged for drug trafficking at the Kota Kinabalu Airport)

I told the Malayiakini reporter that the country needed a full-time Minister to tackle crimes. And Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is too busy as Prime Minister, Finance Minister and the CEO of the country to tackle crimes as well as the Internal Security Minister. Pak Lah should resign as Internal Security Minister if he is unable to fight crimes and restore peace and stability in the country. A full-time Minister must be appointed to fight crime and fight it fast.