Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi appears to be disputing official police statistics when he said that the amended Prevention of Crime Act is needed to control violent crimes, said DAP's Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua.
Referring to a written reply to Parliament, Pua (right) said that this is because police statistics show that there is no significant rise in violent crimes compared to last year.
Pua said that as at September 2013, violent crimes this year is equal to 74.9 percent of such incidents in 2012, which means a "relatively unchanged situations".
"Yet, despite the above, the home minister insists that violent crimes have increased significantly and hence it served as a justification for the government to amend the PCA to include the controversial detention without trial provisions
"Zahid cannot have his cake and eat it too. He must either admit that he is wrong is insisting that violent crimes have increased, which meant that he has misled the Parliament to hastily approve the draconian elements of the PCA, or that the police statistics are completely unreliable and cannot be trusted," he said.
On DAP's part, he said, there is suspicion that crime statistics have been manipulated to show moderating crime rates and this is evident in wide swings within the statistics.
Quoting the New York Times report on Malaysian crime rates, he said robberies using firearm leapt from 722 cases in 2000 to only 17 in 2012, while gang robberies swung from 1,809 in 2010 to just 110 in 2012.
Pua said that even though DAP believes that crime rates are higher than reported by police, it objects to using the fear of crime to introduce draconian law.
“It is the professionalism, competence and organisation of the police force which are the key areas requiring massive reforms and improvements to win the battle against crime,” he said.
Referring to a written reply to Parliament, Pua (right) said that this is because police statistics show that there is no significant rise in violent crimes compared to last year.Pua said that as at September 2013, violent crimes this year is equal to 74.9 percent of such incidents in 2012, which means a "relatively unchanged situations".
"Yet, despite the above, the home minister insists that violent crimes have increased significantly and hence it served as a justification for the government to amend the PCA to include the controversial detention without trial provisions
"Zahid cannot have his cake and eat it too. He must either admit that he is wrong is insisting that violent crimes have increased, which meant that he has misled the Parliament to hastily approve the draconian elements of the PCA, or that the police statistics are completely unreliable and cannot be trusted," he said.On DAP's part, he said, there is suspicion that crime statistics have been manipulated to show moderating crime rates and this is evident in wide swings within the statistics.
Quoting the New York Times report on Malaysian crime rates, he said robberies using firearm leapt from 722 cases in 2000 to only 17 in 2012, while gang robberies swung from 1,809 in 2010 to just 110 in 2012.
Pua said that even though DAP believes that crime rates are higher than reported by police, it objects to using the fear of crime to introduce draconian law.
“It is the professionalism, competence and organisation of the police force which are the key areas requiring massive reforms and improvements to win the battle against crime,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.