I think internally there is a competition among the politicians in this country to come up with the wildest, dumbest ideas. And the latest one that have hit the headlines is the one that deals with allowing pesky Mat Rempits aka public nuisance to race on public streets.
Road safety experts expressed regret and disbelief over a proposal to legalise ‘Mat Rempit‘ racing. The experts who spoke to theSun, raised grave concerns on whether the government would take responsibility should bodily injury or loss of lives occur during such races.
Their concerns come in the wake of a proposal earlier this week by Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor to allow bikers to race in certain parts of the capital city to curb the tendency of “Mat Rempits” who speed in residential and commercial areas.
Universiti Sains Malaysia deputy vice-chancellor Professor Dr Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah described the proposal as risky and a disservice to road safety.
And such stupid proposal have even it left the police in disbelief with the Minister’s ambitions (if you remember the police had declared war on Mat Rempits calling them the cancer of the society?):-
Inspector-General Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar wants to meet Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor over the plan to close certain city roads and allow motorcyclists to race.
“I believe he has his reasons to propose it. I want to meet him to discuss it,” Khalid told reporters at the Bukit Aman police headquarters here.
“I will meet him first to see what his views are,” he said when asked to comment further on the matter.
And not content with leaving the nuisance in the West Malaysia, there were even plans to bring over the nuisance to the East Malaysia, spreading more of this sickness there:-
The plan to provide motorcycle racing tracks in the city is still on the table, with the possibility of extending the proposal to East Malaysia as well.
Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said that the matter was among the issues discussed at a meeting with other Federal Territories Members of Parliament (MPs) at the ministry today.
“I have discussed the ‘Mat Motor’ issues, and I want to solve the matter at hand,” he said, adding that he is looking for a way to provide space to allow motorcycle racers to do what they are interested in.
He said the move would also help tackle syndicates involved in illegal betting who use “Mat Rempits” for their own financial gains.
And the insurance companies were quick to wash their hands off of the proposed plan by the Minister:-
Meanwhile, Persatuan Insurans Am Malaysia (PIAM) said motorcycle insurance policy does not cover activities as racing and it is an exclusion under the policy.
PIAM said any such activity is done at the rider’s own risk and if they injure a third party or damage another person’s property, they will be personally responsible for any damage costs.
“In the event an Insurer (Insurance Company) is held liable to pay by virtue of the provisions under Section 96 of the Road Transport Act, the insurer can seek indemnity from the motorcycle owner and/or rider,” it said.
At the end of the day, everyone is against the idea of allowing Mat Rempits running loose on public roads – all except the Honourable Minister. What the police need to do is this – agree to the Minister’s idea and when the Mat Rempits shows up with their bikes, round them up like rounding up some cattle and charge them on endangering other road users.
(When it comes to crime, it always pays to have another set of eyes on the street for catch criminals in their act. The role of CCTVs in prevention of crime cannot be dismissed – it works 24 by 7 and 365 days without taking rest and it is impartial too. Infographic source: http://visual.ly)
The month April proving to be an interesting month for me
We have walked into the age of GST and the night before was rather comical – I saw a family piling up their grocery items onto the trolley to the brim. Didn’t they know that naturally there will be some items which will see the price going down with GST and there will be some with increased price?
The CCTV grab above, which shows Siti Soffea Emelda being led by a man out of Kota Raya Komplex, could possibly be the last moment Siti Soffea Emelda was seen alive.
The image was taken by police from the shopping centre located in Puduraya on the day Soffea was abducted by the man and hours later found dead with her head severed on the bank of Klang River. Image source: Malay Mail
(Hudud – should Islamic law take over precedent over conventional law if the conventional already exist and been applied by the courts of the country? Why not improve on the existing laws and enforce it instead of bringing in another set of law that does not apply to all? Why reinvent the wheel? Cartoon source: The Net)
The issue of hudud have been in the news lately and there have been plenty of statements made in public and by various parties including politicians from both side of the fence, supporting for or opposing the implementation of hudud.
(It is not the first time the Malaysian authorities had some differences with Interpol. This is from the Wikipedia – Journalist Hamza Kashgari, who in February 2012 fled his home country of Saudi Arabia to avoid prosecution for apostasy, and was subsequently arrested in Malaysia. The Royal Malaysian Police initially asserted that they had arrested Kashgari because they had received an Interpol Red Notice request to do so. However, Interpol stated that no such notice had been issued, and the Malaysian police retracted their claim. Image source: http://www.intelligence-sec.com)
(Only in Malaysia this happens on a regular basis and it is not a laughing matter. After all this country is best of the best when it comes to corruption free Government and corruption fighting agencies, eh?. Cartoon source: http://johnnyongcartoons.blogspot.com/)
Whilst we are largely pre-occupied with MH370 tragedy and have been keeping up our hopes for some kind of closure, some Malaysian politicians have been having some strange itchiness and have been trying to outdo each other in making themselves looking like an ass in public. Hmmm, is this the real reason why that old man, if given a chance, wanted to censor the internet?
World’s Most Corruption Free Country: Malaysia
It’s very obvious that some people in the country still living in a cocoon (perhaps high on coconut water). It must be one hard cocoon that they are living in as evident from this:-
Malaysia antara negara terbersih daripada perbuatan rasuah, kata Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim.
Shahidan menafikan dakwaan Malaysia sebuah negara yang kerap mengamalkan rasuah dan menegaskan dakwaan tersebut tidak wajar dikeluarkan kerana akan memberi kesan kepada pihak lain. Beliau berkata, Malaysia juga mempunyai sebuah agensi memerangi rasuah yang terbaik di dunia iaitu Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM).
Translated in simple English – Malaysia is one of the most corrupt FREE country in the world and has one of the best corruption fighting agency in the world (referring to MACC). Ok, I will wait for you to re-read the statement (mind you, it is coming from a seasoned Minister) and wait for the hard cold reality to hit you. I know, something is not right, right? Done that? Ok great. Now I will wait for you to laugh your heart out.
That is what happened to me when I first read this statement. I was speechless. I was in shock. I do not know which version of Malaysia that Shahidan is talking about (obviously exists in a galaxy far, far away) but it surely cannot be the same Malaysia that most of us are living in. The Malaysia that we live in has been ranked as one of the most corrupt nations by Ernst & Young. That is not a big revelation! We all know that for a long time now and we also know that MACC (the so-called best of the best) is toothless (can’t blame them) when it comes to nabbing those in political power when it comes to corruption (otherwise we would have seen certain Chief Minister behind bars a long time ago).
One of the sourest point in the search for MH370 is the failure for RMAF to correctly identify and intercept MH370 when it deviated from it’s original flight path. If this been done, we could have identify MH370 immediately and would not have wasted valuable time, resources and assets over the South China Sea for days.
Then the Deputy Minister of Defence revealed that RMAF assumed that the plane had turned back because the air traffic control had ordered them back. The part of RMAF “assumed” did not go well with many people – after all, we expect the military to be more precise and professional especially of those monitoring the air space above Malaysia. We expect them to be on high alert and track things out of the ordinary. We expect them to pick up the phone and give DCA a call. With all that technology and expensive military hardware, we had never expect them to work on assumption basis. That is why we were pissed off when the Minister said RMAF had assumed this and that.
Then we had a 180 degree turn:-
Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri today admitted he assumed that the Subang air traffic control had asked lost Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 to turn back, adding his assumption was not accurate.
“In relation to my statement in the debate for the Royal Address yesterday, in which I said MH370 did a turn back probably because it received instructions from air traffic control, I want to clarify that it was just my assumption and one of the possibilities that could have happened.
“After making checks, I would like to stress that my assumption is not accurate,” Abdul Rahim said in a terse two-paragraph statement in Kuala Lumpur today.
Now the joker turns around and say that it was he who made the assumption and not RMAF. Didn’t he check the facts before he opened his mouth in the Parliament? Did he misled the MPs then with unverified facts and wild assumptions? Doesn’t this borders to lying?
If this is not the case, then what would be the real reason for RMAF not scrambling their jets to intercept the rouge plane? Even if they claimed that DCA did not inform them of the missing plane, wouldn’t that make an even more compelling case for RMAF to scramble and intercept the plane? Someone obviously had slept on the job and it is very unsettling to know that we may have huge holes in our defence system. We still want to know what really happened otherwise we may find ourselves with another plane deviated from its flight path.
44 Firearms Lost – A Small Matter Only
It may sound like they had only lost 44 soiled underwear so we have “nothing” to worry but it is not the case:-
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is satisfied with the explanations given by police over its loss of assets, including 44 firearms highlighted in the 2012 Auditor General’s Report, said its chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed.
“The amount is quite small and does not justify further investigation,” he said, adding the loss of assets in any organisation is normal and this included the police force. “We have to accept there will be some losses when the police are on duty, but in terms of the overall firearms, the number of losses is quite small.
“It’s not significant. In audit terms, it’s not significant for us to warrant further investigation,” he told reporters after chairing the PAC meeting today.
Well, I don’t know about you but for me, what is important is not the number of items lost but rather what was lost. If the police had lost say 44 key-chains, it is nothing to shout about. But if you consider that the item lost is a firearm, then even a lost of 1 is a big issue. The police had lost 44 firearms. It could armed a small army to its teeth. It could be used for armed robberies and assassinations. It is significant and it does warrant further investigation. At end of the day, heads must roll and that is what we expect PAC to do. We don’t expect PAC to trivialize the 44 firearms lost and then sweep it under the carpet. Sigh, I sure hope PAC did not buy into the “fallen into the sea” crappy explanation and decided to close the issue. The outcome is very disappointing.
Too many newspapers will confuse Malaysians
Well, too much of something is not good for anyone – I agree but making the same case on newspapers and news is simply dumb (especially at this age of the internet):-
The Home Ministry had rejected FZ Daily and Malaysiakini’s application for publishing permits to protect the public from the confusion of having access to “too much news”.
“The (number of) newspaper publications with approved publishing permits is sufficient considering the number of readers in the country,” Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said in a parliamentary written reply Tuesday.
When the case was taken to the court, the High Court judge ruled that the Home Ministry’s rejection was “improper and irrational”. And the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s decision and thus reconfirming that the rejection was indeed “improper and irrational”. So telling off that having too many newspapers is a bad thing does test one’s logic. At the end of the day, it is all depends on the selling the right news (not the crappy & racial ones from you-know-which-newspaper) and having sizable readership to continue to run the newspaper. No one dies from having too much news. No one goes crazy from reading too many news. And at times (in Malaysia, make it “most of the time”), it makes more sense for one to actually read both side of the story and come out with the right conclusion.
At the end of the day, knowing what Malaysiakini published on the internet, it is nothing but a political laced decision to simply silence the critics and keep the truth on the wrongdoings from surfacing.
And to rub salt on the wound, here we go again – all knowing, charitable and most gracious, whiter than angel politicians wanting to protect the feeble, weak, dumb public from the great danger. If we need any kind of protection, there will be only one – protect us from dumb politicians and their propaganda. We all know why Zahid is shitting in his pants over the application for permit to publish by Malaysiakini. We are not as dumb as he wants us to be.
Well, anyway have a great weekend ahead. Let’s just hope by chance, some of the politicians would start using their brains and we’ll finally hear more intelligent statements from next week onwards.
(Yul Brynner as the majestic King of Siam in the classic movie King and I – he was born to play the role. Can you image what would have happened if a group of people walked up to the palace and demanded the King of Siam to be replaced with their “a bit-lost” leader? They would have arrested immediately and hanged for high treason. Image source: http://www.doctormacro.com)
Eight Filipinos were charged in a Magistrates Court in Lahad Datu today with waging war against the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong, after their armed intrusion in Sabah ended in deadly clashes with Malaysian security forces. The eight men who were arrested by Malaysia were charged under the Penal Code with waging war against the king and for terrorism.
But of course in the Bolehland, double standards and liberal interpretation of the law when it comes to the opposition can be joke of the day:-
Detaining 30 Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) activists for allegedly waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is an extreme interpretation of the law and has been taken out of context, legal experts said. They said the interpretation of Section 122 of the Penal Code was done in “bad faith”.
Thirty of them have been remanded for seven days by the Butterworth magistrate’s court while 16-year-old S Ragu has been released unconditionally.
Police have also seized various items related to the Malayan Communist Party (MCP). They were detained under four charges – illegal assembly, sedition, publishing pamphlets and leaflets against the Printing and Publications Act, and allegedly waging war against the King (under Section 122).
No true blood Malaysian including yours truly would stand aside and let anyone to wage war against the King. Waging war against the Yang Dipertuan Agong who represents the sovereign of this nation is serious and is high treason. So when a group of foreigners invaded Lahad Datu and held their claim on a stake of the nation, we were very pissed off and rightfully these invaders (if they are not killed by our security forces) have been charged with waging war against the King. The same charge against PSM may have been a big screw up and a political one (it was clarified later that it was directed to BN and not the King).
However waging war against the King remains a serious charge and so when a group of disillusioned people walked up to the Istana Negara and tried to replace the Yang Dipertuan Agong with their own leader, it reminded us of the same blatant intrusion to our sovereignty in Lahad Datu back then. It was a good thing that the police had acted swiftly by stopping them on their tracks and arrested them. We expected them to be charged accordingly and further investigations to be done to the extent of the influence and the potent threat posed by this group. After all, if they may have tried to “attack” the palace and dispose the king through passive means and failed, what’s stopping them from taking one step further by trying the same with more aggressive methods? So it was a “surprise” and disappointing when this was reported:-
Police will not be taking further action against a group who tried to enter the Istana Negara and tried to ‘replace’ the Yang di-Pertuan Agong with their own leader. “They are a non-violent group that is a bit lost,” City CID chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Ku Chin Wah told reporters, adding that police will be referring the case to religious authorities. He said investigations into the group that called itself Kumpulan Panji Hitam dari Timur Empayar Langkasuka Nusantara have concluded that they were not a threat.
The group was dressed in black and armed with flags when they gathered in front of the main entrance of the palace at about 4.10am on Aug 5 and were arrested by police shortly after. Ten people were arrested including an 11-year-old girl who was the daughter of the group’s leader. She and her mother, aged 52, were released from detention after two days while the other eight men would be remanded until Aug 17.
When the opposition politicians assembled to campaign on the pitfall of the current government, they were detained and charged with illegal assembly, sedition, publishing pamphlets and leaflets against the Printing and Publications Act, and allegedly waging war against the King. But when another group of people does the same, they were deemed as harmless and a bit lost – with no further charge were taken against them? One had to question what’s going on here and what have changed between the two incidents?
Well, it is all fine if indeed they are harmless and a bit lost, no point of charging them further – it will only cause the court, police and the tax-payers unnecessary time and money. We already have the politicians do the plundering, we don’t need others to do the same. But unfortunately staging protest in front of the palace, demanding for a change of the Yang Dipertuan Agong is very serious even for dumb, lost, sick persons. And ignorance of the law should not be a defence. Thus whilst I am not questioning the wisdom of the police in their investigations, I personally feel that the police should not have made such announcement (that they are harmless and will not be charged) so public – refer them to the religious authorities by all means (although I don’t see the connection between the King and religion in this matter) but don’t absorb them from any criminal wrongdoings. There is still element of illegal assembly, trespassing and sedition (Perkasa buggers are not making noise this time? Interesting but not surprised of the silence). I hope despite the announcement by the police that no action will be taken on this group, they are keeping a very close eye on this group and their activities eventhough they may have more pressing matters to attend to.
They need to for 2 key reasons:-
1. To stress the point that protesting and demanding the King to be replaced cannot be tolerated in this country. You may protest of any unwise decision or statement by the King (or any other royalties for that sake) but you cannot demand them to be replaced. Constitutional monarchy is part and parcel of this nation identity and respect. And;
2. To stress that being dumb and being a bit loss is no excuse to avoid the long reach of the law (perhaps the only exception that this may be allowed is if you are politician). The last thing we need to set a very dangerous precedent – that any Tom, Dick and Harry can go around breaking the law and then claim that they are harmless and a bit loss.
Waging war against the King is as good as waging war against Malaysians – we should not let anyone who does that to go free on the notion of them being a bit lost. I hope that the police will be more alert on similar cases and take the right action against them instead of letting them off scot-free. I am sure this will not be last time we will hearing about this group if close monitoring is not done. I also hope that the police will be more careful on what they say in public as it may bring about a wrong perception the enforcement of the law especially after one had seen how selective prosecution and double standard enforcement works in this country.
(Business Insider last year reported that 20 out of the top 50 dangerous cities lies in Latin America and that itself speaks for the level of criminals from that region. If left unchecked and the severity of the issue is taken for granted, this country will be overrun by them and Malaysia would end up as one of the dangerous places to be in – although this website already claim it to be. Image source: http://visual.ly)
Read these first:-
KUALA LUMPUR: Police have identified the gangs involved in the recent string of ATM break-ins here – and one of them is said to be a group of Latin Americans. City CID chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Ku Chin Wah said police had identified more than three groups as being involved in cases reported in Kuala Lumpur so far this year. “We know how many gangs are involved but none has been arrested yet,” he said at the city police headquarters in Jalan Hang Tuah yesterday. “Some of the gangs are also involved in house break-ins.”
SAC Ku said police had identified two different modus operandi for the gangs. “One group would attempt to pull the machine using chains fastened to a truck. The other modus operandi is cutting through the machines using oxy-acetylene torches,” he added. On July 6, robbers failed to break into a cash deposit machine at a bank in Jalan Chow Kit here – the fourth such case in the Klang Valley in just four days. Three ATMs were hit on the same day in Cheras, Puchong and Kepong on July 3.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is being “promoted” as a choice destination for Latin Americans but for sinister reasons. Criminals who came here from the Latin America regions where Spanish and Portuguese are primarily spoken are said to be returning home to spread the word that breaking into Malaysian homes is easy. “They go back and tell their friends that there is easy money in Malaysia,” city CID chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Ku Chin Wah said at a press conference yesterday.
He said the criminals entered the country with forged documents and conveniently “lost” them later. “When arrested, they say they have no documents and clamp up on the pretext of not knowing English. We have to get the help of a translator to question them.” SAC Ku said last week, the city police nabbed four Latin Americans, believed to be from Colombia, in connection with several house break-ins in the capital. The four men, aged between 19 and 28, were arrested at a condominium in Taman Desa following a tip-off from residents on Oct 19. Police recovered laptops, cameras, branded handbags, watches and four fake firearms. SAC Ku said the police were on the lookout for other gang members who are still at large.
The police are tracing a Latin American woman suspected of being involved in a robbery attempt in which two of her countrymen were detained at Jalan Ampang, last Friday. Kuala Lumpur CID chief Datuk Ku Chin Wah said the woman, in her 30s, was wanted in connection with an attempt to rob a man who had just withdrawn RM30,000 from a bank about 3.30pm on June 14.
“The victim had been approached by two men in an Alphard multi-purpose vehicle on the pretext of helping him with a flat tyre. They then tried to grab his bag containing the cash. “The suspects were nabbed by a police patrol team which happened to be at the scene. But the woman, who was driving the Alphard, sped off when she saw her friends being caught,” he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.
Latin Americans appear to have taken over from Nigerians as the biggest foreign scammers in Malaysia. Besides theft and robbery, they are also becoming notorious for cheating people through trickery and impersonation. They are usually dressed smartly and move around in groups of more than three in flashy rented cars. Kuala Lumpur police CID chief SAC Datuk Ku Chin Wah said today that police were unable to ascertain which countries they are from as they are believed to carry fake passports.
He said they were behind the cases of automated teller machine thefts and several high-profile crimes such as the theft of medical endoscopy equipment worth more than RM4.5 million that was stolen from the University Malaya Medical Centre and two private hospitals here and in Kajang in June last year. “We are questioning them to find out more about their shady activities here. But often there is a language barrier as these foreigners claim they do not speak English.”
Before anyone can claim that this blog is “unfairly prejudice” against foreign criminals, let’s state the obvious fact – Malaysians (from all races and not limited to a few Indian youths) still top the list when it comes to committing crime in this country. And it has been a never-ending cat & mouse game between the authorities and these criminals (sometimes we do score the big one). It remains a big headache for the country and hopefully the new laws replacing the repealed Emergency Ordinance (some claimed had caused some 2,000 EO detainees to go scot-free) will be used effectively to curtail the criminals and their criminal activities. And whilst there is no doubt that the bulk of the blame on the rising crime falls on the locals, we cannot eliminate foreign criminals and law-breakers from the equation:-
Almost five in every 10 prisoners in Malaysian prisons are foreigners. And statistics by the Prisons Department reveal that there was a 14 percent increase in the number of foreign inmates between 2006 and 2009. According to statistics by the Malaysian Prison Department, about 52 percent of prisoners in the country are foreigners. The highest was recorded in 2007 where 82,987 prisoners were foreigners as compared to 66, 272 locals.
Foreigners are responsible for 30 per cent of index crime in Sabah, the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants heard today amid a perceived spike in criminal offences. Sabah police chief Datuk Hamza Taib testified today that foreigners committed 15 per cent of index crimes against locals ― including violent crimes like murder, rape, robberies and theft ― and another 15 per cent against other foreigners.
Well, it used to be the Indonesians (they still do but now we have also terrorists in the hit list), Bangladeshi (has some of them mysteriously ended up as Malaysian now?), Pakistanis (put some of them in the same line with Afghanis waling about in “pyjamas” – I wonder what they are doing here with very little skills, money and purpose), Nigerians “students” (somehow they had gone low profile after tighten of student visa procedures and crackdown by the authorities or had they?), Iranians (they still ruling the drug cartel in the country right?), Indians (same case with the Bangladeshi but once in a while they pop their head in the drug trafficking landscape) and to some small extent the Chinese and Taiwanese when it comes to scam, crime and social disorders and now Latin Americans have join the band-wagon and in a big way too.
Malaysia (aka Truly Asia) is very attractive to all foreigners who want to sample fine accommodations, travel, food, shopping, business, education and employment in this side of the world and at times we are willing to go that extra mile to compete with other tourists spots in region (namely Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia) for the same group of tourists. Unfortunately it also had attracted a good deal of the filth from Latin America. Perhaps we should start with the very basic question – what it makes Malaysia attractive to these Latin America criminals (taking queue from the KL CID chief statement that “Malaysia is being promoted as a choice destination for Latin Americans but for sinister reasons”).
Is it because there is a lack of care and enforcement at the various entries points to a point where even a green slimy Martian can slip in without any blink from the authorities? I don’t think so – after all the authorities did a splendid job banning PKR vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar from entering Sabah back in May 2013 (and that Australian MP too) – all in the name of security of course. Or is it because it is simply easier to commit crime in Malaysia and get away with it? The police force is evidentially stretched to its limits and it is unfortunate they cannot be at all places at the same time. And the fact that peace loving Malaysians are not living in fortresses manned by heavily armed guards makes it easier for these criminals to break into houses. Whatever the reason may be, it is clear that Malaysia have ended up as a beacon for these criminals – what we are going to do about it?
To be fair, I am sure the good people from the Immigration and the Police have been doing their job well enough to stop these criminals at track. Otherwise we would have been another Latin America country where criminal gang related shooting (we are coming to this already), drugs & human trafficking, violent robberies and kidnappings would have been a daily affair. Yes, we are hunting these criminals down but it is more of a reactive action than a proactive one. It is clear that we are not doing enough – we still having missing ATM machines and all fingers are pointing back to the Latin Americans.
There are still loopholes in the system we have not patched and thus foreign criminals are still able to slip in. We have yet to ban some people from some countries and only allowing them into the country only if they have a very strong credentials and very good reasons to be in the country (buggers wanting to learn English is NOT one of them!). With biometrics in place, why we are still having problems with forged documents – it is not easy to forge finger prints when it is done in front of the immigration officers. After all these criminals may have forged documents & false identities but the system would be intelligent enough to detect the same idiots if they are trying slip-in with another name and from another entry point. Are we giving these criminals the kid glove treatment just because they are foreigners (a case of misplaced inferiority where we think the foreigners are one notch better than the locals)?
But investigating, arresting and punishing the criminals is just one part of the action to stop the criminals in their tracks. Another starts at the very entrance point to the country. Officials who let these criminals in through corruption or recklessness should be flushed out and punished. A better system should be put in place to detect forged documents – biometrics coupled with the good wealth of databases from the various law enforcement agencies should be utilized to ensure no one enters the country with forged documents and identities and if they try to do so, they should be held up immediately for suspicion of committing crimes in the country. Repeated criminals should be charged with terrorism and any locals who help them with high treason.
As I have mentioned before, we can never tolerate anyone who come to this country and abuse the entry privileges, take our hospitality for granted, use this country as transit point for all kind of illegal activities, rob & cheat Malaysians at the same time and gain millions of ringgit from their illegal activities whilst continuing to show their middle finger to the law of the country. News should travel back to Latin America countries with the strongest message that Malaysia is a tough place for any criminals and it is not easy to get away with any crimes and where for more serious ones, mandatory death by hanging awaits them.
What will take for the Government to come down hard on these foreigners? The fact that Malaysia is being promoted as a place to commit crime and one website already mentioned the country in its top list for dangerous cities should have irked all Malaysians, the authorities and the Government into action. It is not good for the country in the long run. Yes, it is a fact that we cannot fix all problems overnight – we cannot do away with act of crime so soon but we should be chipping away on the actions to be taken to curtail them. At the end of the day, crime will still happen but one where the criminal cannot get away so easily and once caught and punished to an extent that they will fear to commit any crime.
P.s. And on the notion of the Latin America criminals claiming that they do not speak English (reminds me of another case of “me speak no English“) and thus making it difficult for the police to further investigate, here’s something the police could do – take a piece of rod iron, throw it into the fire and once it is burning hot red, shove it into darkest side of their body and see how they scream in perfect English!
(Sorry for missing out on a post last week – something cropped up and I have moved to the dark side of Android. More of this coming up soon)
(This may look funny but it is hardly a laughing matter, especially when it is not safe to venture out these days. Psst, the whole ATM machines still get “screwed” to this day. Image source: http://www.flickriver.com)
Well, it was not a big surprise:-
Criminals have no fear of the police and are even daring enough these days to rob during dinners, weddings and funerals. Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, who is Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) vice-chairman, said the criminals believe they won’t get caught due to poor law enforcement. “I feel we have lagged in terms of law enforcement that strikes fear in the hearts of the criminals,” he said.
A survey by the International Islamic University Malaysia’s (IIUM) Communication department has shown that crime is the number one concern among Malaysians. IIUM lecturer Prof Datuk Seri Dr Syed Arabi Idid said the results of the nationwide study, conducted between April 6 and 14, showed that crime had surpassed economic woes as the main worry. One out of every three adult respondents said crime had become a national problem.
M. Danaletchumi pleaded with the robbers and told them her family was poor before she felt the sharp pain on her head and saw blood gushing out from her thumb. A robber had hit the 50-year-old with the handle of a parang and cut her thumb when told there was not much money in the house.
Criminals striking fear in broad daylight is nothing new. Even the VVIPs are not spared (if you recall this)
Some weeks ago, I badly needed a good haircut but I had been putting away the visit to my favourite barber until last week. When I finally had the time, I went over to the place and found the barber’s assistant had taken leave and there were about 4 customers waiting for their turn. The barber busy with one of the customer, looked at me when I walked in and asked if I could come back later – there were too many customer at moment and he soon need to take his break. So I went back, took a quick nap and a couple hours later, I came back, hoping that there would be fewer customers by now.
As I parked my car right in front of the barber shop, I noticed a group of young motorcyclists looking at me rather suspiciously. Although I saw them and be more alert than usual, I “ignored” them as I walked into the barber shop – they seemed to be minding their own business and I knew the barber rather well. I waited for my turn and kept looking out at the men outside, hoping they would not do anything “funny” to my car and when it came to my turn, I realized that I am the last customer for the day before the barber closes the shop for the day. Soon, there was no one in the barber shop other than me and the barber and I noticed the motorcyclists that I met earlier were still around in front of the barber shop, occasionally throwing their glances at the barbershop and one was standing quite close to my car.
Soon I realized there were silence (as the barber busied himself with the haircut) and somehow my “spidey senses” went all out high – I started imagining – I imagined a group of men rushing into the barber shop with parang and sticks. It would have been an easy pick for them – me with the key for the my car right outside the shop, phone and wallet with plenty of money and the barber with his collection for the day and mind you, with no other witnesses or CCTV to catch them in the act. Somehow the barber stopping and keep looking out at the group outside did not really help to improve the situation.
Then I heard someone opening the front door and I told myself – “damn, this was it! this was the end” My eyes quickly scanned on the barber’s table looking for any kind of weapon that I could use to defend myself – sharp scissors, shaving blades, hair oil, etc. But just then, the barber spoke out and said that he is closing the shop. Oh, another late customer wanting to get a hair-cut. The customer smiled and then walked out without any incident but somehow I knew it was not over until the barber had done his job (and I was safely back in my car). Then I heard the shutter door coming down – the criminals are drawing down the shutter doors so that they can rob without any interruption? Damn, again. But then it was a no, it was just the barber’s friend who had brought in some meal and kept the shutter down halfway to prevent any other customers walking in. With his friend keeping us company and the barber finishing the haircut, only then I started to feel a bit ease. The motorcyclists who I saw earlier no where to be seen and no one had touched my car.
This is reality of things these days and it started to be getting worse – nowadays it is even not safe even you have plenty of people around (as in restaurants and funerals). So when the Government comes back and keep saying that the rate of crime has been getting lower, one really need to question on its source and whether the police is placing the right priority in managing it’s limited resources. Not when we have this kind of nonsense:-
Student leader Mohd Safwan Anang has also been arrested by police. He was picked up at about 7pm from his house in Sungai Buloh and was taken to the Dang Wangi police station. It is believed that his arrest is in connection with the Black 505 rally at Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya, on Saturday.
Come on lah, which is a more serious concern to Malaysians out there? A bunch of people saying out aloud their opinion on the political issues in the country OR need to face violent criminals who struck without any fear or care on diners on broad daylight? Let’s leave the play of gutter politics to the politicians and the police left to focus on the real security issues out there – the enforcement of law and ensuring that the crime rate really goes down, not merely at statistical level but also in common citizen’s perception level.
After all, if it had come to a stage when it does not feel safe to have a simple haircut, I am not sure what else can go wrong and be worse. It’s time to make criminals to know that whatever they do, they can be caught and fear the consequences of breaking the law through effective policing and enforcement. And we cannot do that without an good increase in the force on ground, relocation of the limited resources from non essential investigations (like the one that involves opposition politicians), perhaps more CCTVs and mobile police beats in place at crime prone areas, substantial increase of punishment for armed crimes (looking at the hudud laws makes a lot of sense now) and lastly perhaps banning the pesky “kapchai” (yes, the very favourite mode of transportation for snatch thieves, menacing mat rempits, armed robbers and cold blood assassins) from the roads.
(By all means, we welcome foreigners for the benefit of education, business and tourism sectors but what we do not welcome is them ending up as a menace and start committing crime in this country)
Despite the arrests, don’t you feel angry when some bastard foreigners and come over and piss on our good hospitality and abuse the student visas and commit criminal activities?
Yet another drug trafficking syndicate with African links was crippled by the Selangor police recently. Nine Nigerian men and three local women were nabbed in separate raids, with the seizure of ganja and syabu worth about RM300,000.
The suspects, aged between 25 and 33, are believed to be students of private institutions in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. Selangor Narcotics Crime Department chief ACP Nordin Kadir said Wednesday that initial investigations indicated the Nigerians had been operating in this country since last year, and smuggled the drugs for the local market, including classmates.
The nine suspects have been placed under a seven-day remand, beginning Feb 20, to facilitate investigations under 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act which carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction.
Don’t you get angry? If I am a genuine student from the same continent, I would be angry with these criminals abusing student visas and give a bad name to all students from the continent. I would be angry with them for creating a sense of apprehension, fear and wrong impressions with the locals.
And if I am an immigration officer, I would be angry knowing that there are some bad apples in the department who had been plainly careless or may even been highly corrupted in granting student visas without a proper check of the background of the students or college – the fact that these bastards coming over to learn English in some dubious college should have rung the alarm in any immigration officer’s mind from the very start.
African menace as the one above and that includes Iranians drug mules, drug dealers and now, assassins posing as students has been one pain in the neck. But then, after a long time, there seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel:-
Malaysia has tightened the visa application process from foreigners wanting to study here to curb rising cases of permit abuse. The applications would be screened by the police first, Home Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Mahmood Adam said in a press statement yesterday.
This was among the new measures to ensure only genuine students would be given approval, he added. Mahmood said his ministry and other regulatory authorities had worked to streamline procedures involving foreign students.
The decision to stop granting visas on arrival and social visit passes to foreign students could curtail crimes, including prostitution involving foreigners claiming to be students of private institutions of higher learning in the country.
Bukit Aman anti-vice, gaming and secret societies (D7) principal assistant director Datuk Abdul Jalil Hassan said the police had discussed the matter with the Immigration Department before making the recommendation to the Higher Education Ministry to stop issuing such visas and visit passes to foreign students to check the abuse.
Most of the students arrested for alleged involvement in criminal activities were pursuing short courses, such as language skills, at private colleges not under the ministry’s supervision, he told Bernama on Monday.
He was commenting on the Higher Education Ministry’s decision to stop issuing visas on arrival and social visit passes to foreign students to check the abuse. Its minister, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said visas would only be issued to foreign students after they received an offer from public or private institutions of higher learning under the ministry’s supervision.
Admittedly this should have been done a long, long time ago but at least, the Government seemed to moving its fat big butt in enforcing the student visa rules and we just hope that this change of policy will be closely followed up with proper enforcement.
A good chance for the Home Minister to put good of his words that Malaysia is not a safe transit for criminals
