Kudos for community initiated and funded crime prevention efforts

I would not label myself pious but I am not about to cheat, kill or cause bodily harm to anyone, not even those I do not see eye-to-eye with. Neither would I, now or in the foreseeable future, attempt to challenge the law (Okay, some of you would call that cowardly – but hey, that’s not the subject of this discussion).

Yet, each time I drive past a lone female pedestrian, I cannot help but utter a silent prayer for her safety. Irrespective of where or when, pedestrians have in recent years become what some would call sitting, in this case walking ducks for snatch thieves and muggers alike.

The Malaysian government is stepping up security measures. Makeshift police pondoks or huts have sprung up of late in especially crime-prone areas such as Petaling Jaya’s notorious SS2. Still, past and tragic experiences endured by snatch theft victims will remain etched in the minds of many. Victims -- young, old and even those in advanced stage of pregnancy -- have not been spared.

Don’t think you will never be part of the statistics. A female colleague and her male companion were strolling down a main thoroughfare in a busy part of Petaling Jaya late one afternoon not long ago when they were accosted by a motorcyclist and his pillion rider who pulled up his shirt to reveal a long parang. The rider, meanwhile, swung menacingly at my colleague a thick metal chain with a huge and life-threatening metal padlock at one end.

I dread to imagine what damage the padlock would do if flung at one’s skull or face!

Oblivious to the traffic roaring past, the intimidating duo relieved my friends of their valuables; thank God they did not resist – that could have been disastrous.

If you think parang and thick iron chains are deadly, take note that snatch thieves are getting bolder. Last Saturday (Sept 26), a kind Samaritan was shot when he went to the aid of an elderly woman who was struggling to stop a motorcyclist from fleeing with her handbag at a car park in Kuala Lumpur’s Mont’Kiara. Police have found 9mm bullet casings at the scene.

In Johor Baru, 17-year-old straight-As student Tan Shu Fang and her mother were walking to a bank on Sept 17 when her handbag was snatched by two men on a motorcycle. Shu Fang fell and went into a coma; she succumbed to her injuries last Friday, Sept 25.

What, you may wonder, have snatch thefts got to do with real estate? Snatch thieves cum robbers are now plying the interior roads of housing estates in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Not long ago, two female teenaged neighbours of mine had just parked their car outside the house when a motorcycle with two men, one armed with a long parang, pulled alongside the vehicle. The young car driver was ordered to hand over all her valuables but her sister jumped out from the front passenger seat and dashed for freedom, her screams shattering the calm of the night. One of the robbers tried to chase her but fortunately for the young lady, he gave up after a while.

Then at about 8am one morning recently, another neighbour was getting into her car parked outside the house, to go to work. A motorcycle appeared out of the blue and the rest is history. Add to these the occurrences of break-ins, both in the daytime and at night.
For many, the crime situation has reached a tipping point. Residents of increasingly more neighbourhoods in KL and Selangor have joined hands to put in place a security system modeled after the gated-and-guarded community.

Such a system is not full proof. Neither is it perfect. Most unfortunately, it is also not one that is readily favoured by all residents in any locale. Its execution is made more challenging in the older housing areas where the layout was never designed for gated community living.

The authorities too must find themselves in a bind – how can it be bad that people are chipping in both time and money to help prevent and fight crime in their neighbourhoods? On the flipside, there are minority groups who disapprove for varying reasons, some of them quoting their rights as prescribed under the law.

I agree whole heartedly that laws cannot and must never be broken. The powers that be, however, must stay guided by the needs and objectives of community initiated and funded crime prevention efforts which are in fact a manifestation of a cry out loud for help.

The authorities must not frown upon any voluntary move to prevent crime, just because there are isolated protests. If indeed the law in its current form makes it challenging for the existence of community initiated and funded crime prevention efforts, perhaps a review is called for.

Why should there be a compromise on well-meaning attempts to bring back the good old days when one can wash cars or do gardening outside the house compound without worrying about being robbed? One should be able to stroll down the road without having to act like a fugitive, suspicious of any motorist roaring past (sometimes they come in cars too!). And is it too much for one to expect to return home after being away for whatever reasons to find everything intact?

Community initiated and funded efforts are commendable and the government must look into ways to facilitate them.

Au Foong Yee is editor of theedgeproperty.com and City & Country, the property pullout of The Edge Malaysia weekly.