Segambut woes Part II

Not less crime, just fewer reports
As for the crime rate, not a day passes without a break-in, snatch theft or robbery sullying his constituency. Lim pours scorn on KL chief of police Muhammad Sabtu Osman's report of a 30% drop in the KL crime rate during the first two months of this year. “It's not the crime rate that has fallen but the number of police reports made because people have lost confidence in the police,” Lim opined. “And the crime rate in Segambut is solely the government's doing.” According to Lim, certain plots of land in Segambut which belong to the ministry and DBKL were once earmarked as sites for police stations. One plot is in Sri Hartamas and the other in Sri Sinar. The former now functions as a hawker centre while a badminton court and hypermarket sit on the latter.
 

“I confronted the former minister about this and he admitted that the sites were meant for police stations,” Lim said. “He told me that neither the police nor the government had funds to build one so rather than leave the land vacant, they decided to sublet it to generate income. This is the nonsense that's going on.” “I've also repeatedly asked Bukit Aman and the Home Ministry to set up mobile police stations or even pondok polis in the area but nothing has been done. The only development has been in Taman Sri Sinar where a police officer begged me to ask Bukit Aman to send more personnel to his station.” “Apparently, he is the only officer on duty during the day and is obviously unable to be at two crime scenes at one time. I put in the complaint and two officers have since been sent over. But the rest of the police stations in my constituency are severely understaffed.”

Forging ahead
Aside from putting pressure on the authorities, Lim also has two ideas which he believes would reduce the crime rate in Segambut. The first involves the installation of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at 1km intervals. He has already submitted this proposal to the government only to have it shot down due to the projected high cost.

But Lim is undeterred; he is pressing forward with his second proposal: setting up an official Neighbourhood Watch. This would be different from the Rukun Tetangga, which he called a “failed project”. Even so, there was a hint of pride in his voice when he said that Malaysia's first Rukun Tetangga (RT) was set up in Segambut. But then his tone changed as he added that the centre is now locked up. “The RT people in Segambut are all from BN,” he said. “And since the government allocates RM600 a month to maintain and run an active RT centre, they hold a function there once a month and then lock it up again.” On his Neighbourhood Watch idea, Lim explained that it would require residents to contribute a certain sum to the Residents' Association for the hiring of guards to be stationed at each entry point into the residential area. This initiative is already in full swing in his residential area. “Some 90% of the residents are in favour but the 10% – who are senior citizens – can overturn the whole project,” he said. “In Taman Tun Dr Ismail, the senior citizens hated the guards monitoring the comings and goings of their guests, so they complained to DBKL and Bukit Aman and that was the end of it.” 

Government agency
While on the subject of government agencies, he was quick to commend DBKL and Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) for their services. “Not many MPs say this but I am actually happy with DBKL,” he said. “I can honestly say that out of 10 complaints, it has resolved eight. The two unresolved ones could be due to political intervention or a genuine lack of resources.” “As for Syabas, it is the best government agency I have worked with. I would even call it superb! It responds to every single complaint with a report of its investigations and the action it will take and resolves the problem within 12 hours. If all government agencies followed suit, there would be many very happy MPs and constituents.”