DAP demands probe on crime stats tinkering
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 26 — The DAP today demanded the government investigate a senior police officer’s allegation that Putrajaya’s efficiency unit and the police have been manipulating crime statistics to paint a false picture of the country’s crime rate.
Pointing blame at Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein as well as ministers in charge of the government’s National Key Results Areas (NKRA), Datuk Seri Idris Jala and Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said the Cabinet should hold a special meeting before National Day next week to “let the truth be told to the Malaysian public” if the ministers “are not prepared to break their silence”.
On Wednesday, an anonymous letter purportedly written by the policeman had alleged of how crime cases were being methodically shifted into “non-index” offences that were not registered as part of official statistics presented by efficiency unit PEMANDU.
“Hishammuddin’s recent announcement to make crime-busting ‘top priority’ debunked by his four-day thunderous silence on allegation of fake crime statistics by ‘whistleblower’ police officer,” Lim said today in a press statement.
“Although the ‘whistleblower’ has given a very credible account of the doctoring of crime statistics, Malaysians have withheld final judgment awaiting clarification from Hishammuddin, Idris Jala and Koh,” he added.
Lim (picture) said the trio cannot continue their silence over the matter as the allegations “will give the 55th Merdeka Day theme of ‘Janji Ditepati’ (Promises Fulfilled) unwanted connotations”.
Asked if DAP will add this issue to their election campaign, DAP MP Tony Pua told The Malaysian Insider that crime was already considered a hot election issue.
“The lack of response will only demonstrate to the public that the entire Crime NKRA is nothing but a statistical scam,” he said.
However, asked of their next course of action if there is no response from Putrajaya, Pua briefly said: “Getting ahead of ourselves. We’ll see if they respond at all over the next two days”.
Following the letter’s appearance, Pakatan Rakyat leaders had urged the federal government to rebut the allegation regarding the manipulation of crime data.
“The ‘Sumun Osram’ letter alleged that there is a systemic attempt to ‘lower the crime statistics by shifting the index crime to the non-index crime,” the opposition pact’s secretariat members had said in a statement signed by PKR’s Nurul Izzah Anwar, PAS’s Dr Hatta Ramli and DAP’s Liew Chin Tong earlier this week.
“The official crime statistics consist of only index crime,” they said, pointing out Sumun Osram’s allegation that the police would classify crime under the non-index category when police reports were made.
According to the letter, which was made available to The Malaysian Insider, “Index crime is defined as crime which is reported with sufficient regularity and with sufficient significance to be meaningful as an index to the crime situation”.
“Non-index crime”, on the other hand, is considered as cases minor in nature and does not occur with such rampancy to warrant its inclusion into the crime statistics or as a benchmark to determine the crime situation.
