Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching today revealed that two separate parliamentary answers on the same matter that the ministry claims was supplied by police, showed contradictory statistics.
According to the DAP MP, a written answer in Parliament given to her by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry on June 21, 2012 said that 71 suspects had been charged in court for domestic violence.
However, a parliamentary answer given to Sabak Bernam MP Abdul Rahman Bakri on Nov 3, 2009 by the same ministry stated that 104 people were charged for domestic violence in the year 2008.
"Even our ministries cannot get the right figures from PDRM; how can we expect the general public to trust the police?" she asked.
According to the DAP MP, a written answer in Parliament given to her by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry on June 21, 2012 said that 71 suspects had been charged in court for domestic violence.
However, a parliamentary answer given to Sabak Bernam MP Abdul Rahman Bakri on Nov 3, 2009 by the same ministry stated that 104 people were charged for domestic violence in the year 2008.
"Even our ministries cannot get the right figures from PDRM; how can we expect the general public to trust the police?" she asked.
The answer to the Sabak Bernam MP also stated that 38 people have been convicted for domestic violence in 2008, but the answer given to Teo (right) stated that only one person has been convicted for the same in the same year. Speaking to reporters at the DAP headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, she said that the statistics given to her also reveal a “miserable” charging and conviction rate for domestic violence.
“(An) average 2.6 percent were brought to court (for the years 2008 to 2011). That’s very low. Conviction rate is even more amazing... only an average 1.4 percent of suspects are convicted in court. That is too low, far too low for me,” said Teo, who practiced law prior to joining politics.
She, however, admits that domestic violence cases may not reflect the trends in other types of crime, and hopes conviction rates in other crimes are higher.
She also called for transparency of conviction rates and similar statistics by the Home Ministry so as to encourage more people to report crimes that happen to them.
“Let’s be frank to the rakyat... knowing how many of these cases are solved and how many (suspects) are charged and convicted will increase public confidence.
“Let (the public) know that it is not futile for them to wait two hours at the police station to lodge a police report, and that eventually somebody will be charged and convicted,” she said.
Violent crime on the rise in Subang Jaya?
Also at the press conference were DAP’s Subang Jaya assemblyperson Hannah Yeoh, who called for full disclosure of incidences of crime for each neighbourhood.
The Selangor DAP treasurer said while she does not have conclusive statistics to prove this, she is concerned by the number of police reports on violent crime sent to her service centre by her constituents.
Between June 12 and July 5, Yeoh’s (right in photo) service centre received via email, fax and walk-ins eight constituent complaints accompanied by police reports of street crime, most of which were robbery using a parang.
“The Subang OCPD had a dialogue with the residents recently and he too admitted an increase in violent crime. Recently, security guards at guarded communities were violently attacked in two incidents and this was reported by the media,” she said.
According to DAP publicity chief Tony Pua, police can do good by coming clean with detailed statistics crime in a timely basis, as done by the United Kingdom police.
Referring to the UK police's interactive website www.police.uk , he said the UK police provide up to date crime statistics for users down to street and district level.
“They also incidences of anti social behaviour, vandalism, drugs and other crimes which are not included in the Malaysian crime index. It’s very comprehensive,” he said.
He added that while he does not expect the Malaysian police to be able to come up with such a website in a short time, PDRM can still publish their existing data up to district level on their website.
“Then people can take preventive action, know which roads to avoid and if they have to go there, take precaution. People have the right to know how much crime happens in their neighbourhood.”
He added that full disclosure of crime trends can also raise public confidence.
“The baseline is not so good now, but then people an compare with future achievements,” he said.
Pua (right in photo), who has sought the detailed crime statistics through Parliament before, claims detailed data has not been readily available since 2009, with the inception of the National Key Results Area initiative.
“I understand there are specific instructions not to give out detailed statistics. It’s very ironic that the statistics stopped when NKRA started,” he said.
Teo added that hiding detailed data from the public would only raise fears and reduce public confidence in police as people have access to information through the Internet and the media.
The Selangor DAP treasurer said while she does not have conclusive statistics to prove this, she is concerned by the number of police reports on violent crime sent to her service centre by her constituents.
Between June 12 and July 5, Yeoh’s (right in photo) service centre received via email, fax and walk-ins eight constituent complaints accompanied by police reports of street crime, most of which were robbery using a parang. “The Subang OCPD had a dialogue with the residents recently and he too admitted an increase in violent crime. Recently, security guards at guarded communities were violently attacked in two incidents and this was reported by the media,” she said.
According to DAP publicity chief Tony Pua, police can do good by coming clean with detailed statistics crime in a timely basis, as done by the United Kingdom police.
Referring to the UK police's interactive website www.police.uk , he said the UK police provide up to date crime statistics for users down to street and district level.
“They also incidences of anti social behaviour, vandalism, drugs and other crimes which are not included in the Malaysian crime index. It’s very comprehensive,” he said.
He added that while he does not expect the Malaysian police to be able to come up with such a website in a short time, PDRM can still publish their existing data up to district level on their website.
“Then people can take preventive action, know which roads to avoid and if they have to go there, take precaution. People have the right to know how much crime happens in their neighbourhood.”
He added that full disclosure of crime trends can also raise public confidence.
“The baseline is not so good now, but then people an compare with future achievements,” he said. Pua (right in photo), who has sought the detailed crime statistics through Parliament before, claims detailed data has not been readily available since 2009, with the inception of the National Key Results Area initiative.
“I understand there are specific instructions not to give out detailed statistics. It’s very ironic that the statistics stopped when NKRA started,” he said.
Teo added that hiding detailed data from the public would only raise fears and reduce public confidence in police as people have access to information through the Internet and the media.
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