By Lisa J. Ariffin
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 ― Lim Kit Siang today questioned Putrajaya’s inaction over claims that its efficiency unit and the police had manipulated crime statistics by reclassifying offences to depict a reduced crime rate.
Pinpointing Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein as well as ministers in charge of the government’s National Key Result Area (NKRA), Datuk Seri Idris Jala and Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon over the matter, Lim today said the trio should have “instantly” rebutted the “serious allegations of dishonest statistics tampering by the anonymous police officer”.
On Wednesday, an anonymous letter purportedly written by policeman alleged of how crimes were being methodically shifted into “non-index” offences that were not registered as part of official statistics presented by efficiency unit PEMANDU.
“If Hishammuddin, Idris Jala and Koh continue to keep their silence, then Malaysians must thank the anonymous police officer for performing his patriotic duty to answer why Malaysians suffer increasing fear of crime (despite) claims of continuous drastic fall in crime rate,” Lim said today in a press statement.
He added the government should instead appoint a new home minister “who is serious about fighting crime” and who is “honest with Malaysians about the actual crime situation in the country”.
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 said in a statement signed by PKR’s Nurul Izzah Anwar, PAS’s Dr Hatta Ramli and DAP’s Liew Chin Tong.
“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.