Crime Statistics: 1 Question, 3 Answers

Home Ministry's third boo-boo over crime rate?
S Pathmawathy
1:46PM Jun 21, 2012

Selangor's actual crime data is under scrutiny after it was pointed out that the Home Ministry has given three conflicting sets of figures for the crime rate in 2009.

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said he received a written parliamentary reply in 2010, which states the total crime cases in Selangor as 54,443 for 2009.

Two days ago, Pua received a written reply to a similar question, which had sought a detailed breakdown - by type and district - on crime in Selangor, which was stated as 56,689 cases.

Pua then held a press conference to complain about the vague details in the reply and claimed that it does not show that the war against crime was succeeding.

Yesterday, Home Ministry secretary-general Abdul Rahim Mohamad Radzi withdrew the written reply to Pua and revised the 2009 crime figure to 54,994.

Rahim had claimed that the written reply contained a "typographical" error.

'Correction sent out on Monday'

According to the secretary-general, the new figures show a 19.4 percent drop in Selangor’s crime rate since 2009, and a 24.7 percent drop nationwide.

Rahim also said that the correction was sent to Parliament on Monday for Pua's reference, a day before the media conference, but Pua said nothing had been placed on his desk.

"Are these figures adapted as and when the ministry wants to adapt them? If they are genuine about the crime statistics, they should publish all breakdowns as requested," Pua hit out.

He had earlier complained that the ministry had not been forthcoming with the thorough statistics since 2010, when the National Key Results Area (NKRA) on crime prevention under the Government Transformation Progamme was announced.

Prior to that, there had never been a problem in getting statistics on the rise or reduction of crime rates, he said.

Insisting that crime prevention "warrants serious attention" from the authorities, Pua urged the government to release the complete breakdown on crime in the country.

"If they are really proud that crime has been reduced by 20, 30 or 40 percent, then they should not hesitate to publish the results," he added.