Crime Rate Prevention - Another Answer
Before I published the post on what can be done to reduce the crime rate in JB, I sent the article to several people; Sharon Bakar, Azmi Shahrom, Pak Idrus, and Bakri Musa. So far Sharon and Pak Idrus have responded, and Pak Idrus suggested several other steps that the Government can take to buff up crime prevention effort.
He suggested that first the society has to be educated towards being civic minded. According to the online dictionaries that I referred, civic-minded means "concerned with civic interests or active in community affairs." In other words, the community has to be educated and conditioned to be active in taking care of their properties and safety as a whole. Think Rukun Tetangga. In fact, this idea had been practiced by our forefathers at the kampung (villages). They are close-knitted, treat each other as family members, and take care of each other well-being. A concept lost in the city (coincidently where crime rate is high).
On the Government/Police/Legal side, we need quality enforcement of the law. I believe what he meant was no-nonsense policemen whose sense of justice will not be swayed by a few limpuls (a term I borrowed from Rocky's best friend. E-mail me for its meaning), and a transparent legal system. By "transparent", I mean that the lawyers will bare all the truth about the proceedings, and that the decision made by the Court is not being influenced by annoying external factors (bribe, threats, favoritism, cronism, nepotism, etc). These two factors (education and quality enforcement) have to go hand in hand for them to work effectively. Which makes sense, because there's no point for the citizens to be living ethically, while the law is being run by unethical people. And it's a joke to have ethical policemen and legal system if the community as a whole are like a**holes.
Another step he pointed out is that the police force have to be reformed. Currently, the management structure for the police force is a centralized management structure. If I remembered correctly, a centralized management structure is effective and efficient in a small organization. That explains why, given that Singapore exercises the same management structure for her police force, that small island country managed to keep its crime rate lower. Since Malaysia is a big country, with millions upon millions of citizens, we should adopt a decentralized management structure for our police force. The police force should be decentralized and the responsibility of the state police or the district police force should be in the hand of the local leadership, i.e. the OCPD and the CPO. The OCPD of each district should be responsible to hire and fire his staff. The state should recruit the best person to be the OCPD and he should be given the authority to do the job of policing the law in his district. This way, the police force will have a more professional outlook, firmer commitment towards law enforcement, and no longer be affected by political factors.
He also raised the issue of low participation by the non-Malays in the police force. He said that our police force should be multi racial, for every police group of ten there must be four non Malay. This is very important so that every race contribute in tackling the criminal problem. This issue, in my humble opinion, is greatly related to how the policemen were remunerated. I have no idea how much they are paid, but if they are so willingly accept a couple of limpuls to "tutup sebelah mata", they must've been paid poorly. In his own words, Pak idrus said, "It is a tough job and the pay is rather low compare to a person who sell kueteoy at the roadside." If that's the case, even Malays will consider being a criminal, since it pays more to be one. So the government have to consider steps to increase the remunerations of the policemen and policewomen so that we will have a quality police force. By all means, please consider my suggestion about the treatment of the prisoners. The taxpayers' money can be used to pay our police force better, rather than to feed the criminals and drug addicts in the prisons and the drug rehabilitation centers.
I will keep posting about this issue every time I get a response on it. This is a crucial issue to be discussed about, since it will not only affect our safety, but also our love ones'.
He suggested that first the society has to be educated towards being civic minded. According to the online dictionaries that I referred, civic-minded means "concerned with civic interests or active in community affairs." In other words, the community has to be educated and conditioned to be active in taking care of their properties and safety as a whole. Think Rukun Tetangga. In fact, this idea had been practiced by our forefathers at the kampung (villages). They are close-knitted, treat each other as family members, and take care of each other well-being. A concept lost in the city (coincidently where crime rate is high).
On the Government/Police/Legal side, we need quality enforcement of the law. I believe what he meant was no-nonsense policemen whose sense of justice will not be swayed by a few limpuls (a term I borrowed from Rocky's best friend. E-mail me for its meaning), and a transparent legal system. By "transparent", I mean that the lawyers will bare all the truth about the proceedings, and that the decision made by the Court is not being influenced by annoying external factors (bribe, threats, favoritism, cronism, nepotism, etc). These two factors (education and quality enforcement) have to go hand in hand for them to work effectively. Which makes sense, because there's no point for the citizens to be living ethically, while the law is being run by unethical people. And it's a joke to have ethical policemen and legal system if the community as a whole are like a**holes.
Another step he pointed out is that the police force have to be reformed. Currently, the management structure for the police force is a centralized management structure. If I remembered correctly, a centralized management structure is effective and efficient in a small organization. That explains why, given that Singapore exercises the same management structure for her police force, that small island country managed to keep its crime rate lower. Since Malaysia is a big country, with millions upon millions of citizens, we should adopt a decentralized management structure for our police force. The police force should be decentralized and the responsibility of the state police or the district police force should be in the hand of the local leadership, i.e. the OCPD and the CPO. The OCPD of each district should be responsible to hire and fire his staff. The state should recruit the best person to be the OCPD and he should be given the authority to do the job of policing the law in his district. This way, the police force will have a more professional outlook, firmer commitment towards law enforcement, and no longer be affected by political factors.
He also raised the issue of low participation by the non-Malays in the police force. He said that our police force should be multi racial, for every police group of ten there must be four non Malay. This is very important so that every race contribute in tackling the criminal problem. This issue, in my humble opinion, is greatly related to how the policemen were remunerated. I have no idea how much they are paid, but if they are so willingly accept a couple of limpuls to "tutup sebelah mata", they must've been paid poorly. In his own words, Pak idrus said, "It is a tough job and the pay is rather low compare to a person who sell kueteoy at the roadside." If that's the case, even Malays will consider being a criminal, since it pays more to be one. So the government have to consider steps to increase the remunerations of the policemen and policewomen so that we will have a quality police force. By all means, please consider my suggestion about the treatment of the prisoners. The taxpayers' money can be used to pay our police force better, rather than to feed the criminals and drug addicts in the prisons and the drug rehabilitation centers.
I will keep posting about this issue every time I get a response on it. This is a crucial issue to be discussed about, since it will not only affect our safety, but also our love ones'.
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