LET'S GET REAL ABOUT KEVIN'S MURDERERS: THOSE GUYS WERE NO 'ORDINARY THIEVES' OR 'NOVICES'

The most gruesome and unfortunate murder of Kevin Morais is condemned. As friends, associates and a nation of caring citizens moan a great loss of a committed and conscientious corruption-buster, several questions beg immediate answers from Najib’s government.

The Vice Chairman of Malaysia’s Crime Prevention association, Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye and two prominent criminologists have pointed out that public apathy is also to be blamed for Morais’ murder.

Why are there paid people willing and eager to shift the blame on to citizens when they should first take a hard look at our structural weaknesses in crime prevention?

Well public apathy is an easy answer. But let us not forget of the numerous robberies where citizens who took the risk to do the right thing or avert a crime ended up as victims of the robbers.

Let us get real here for a moment. These men who bundled Kevin Morais into a car in broad daylight and at peak hour in an area of heavy traffic boasting CCTV security features must be no ordinary thieves. They cannot be so dumb or naïve novices as not to know the risks involved in nabbing the victim in such a vicinity and circumstances.

They would have instead and in all likelihood trailed the car to a more secluded spot or where traffic was not so heavy to carry out their mission.

I would like to ask the Vice Chairman of the Crime prevention body as well as the ‘prominent’ criminologists what if any intervention by the public led to a brutal shooting of more people?

Would we then give our disapproval for their foolish act of gallantry?

Do not discount the prospect that these are not ‘mat rempits’ type of Rasputin. They are hired gangsters or would be assassins. They would have in all probability expedited the plan under a demand for urgency and at an ‘at all cost’ requirements by the mastermind.

Should we not therefore be questioning the structural discrepancies and weaknesses in crime prevention in the country?

Having CCTV is deemed as a great achievement by the Najib administration. They fail to account for the fact as to why there is no one monitoring these CCTV under a 24-hour surveillance? If the CCTV was been monitored as part of the complementing crime prevention effort, this murder plan could have been averted.

Such comprehensive efforts will have put the police ahead of the criminals at work. Why ask or blame the public for not reporting to the authorities then?

In the first place too, where are all our policemen on the beat? Are there not enough personnel to be deployed especially on busy streets?

And Najib did appoint and approve the beefing-up of Rela members and promised that they will help compliment the shortage of police personnel. What happened to this Unit? Are they only for assisting traffic at weddings and official functions?

We have a government that seems so gung-ho on wealth creation with its magical RM42billion ventures. But street crimes are left to the public to take care and hold themselves apathetic when a heinous crime is created.

When citizens are not safe and have to look out for themselves and fellow citizens on the streets, it means that we have a structural crime prevention weakness. Addressing such failures must start from the top. - MAILBAG