BU crime walk

By Tan Karr Wei, The Star, May 27, 2008
THE Selangor Government is looking into ways to reduce unemployment in the state.
Bukit Lanjan assemblyman Elizabeth Wong said besides insufficient police personnel, unemployment was one of the reasons for the high crime rate in many areas in the state.
The other reasons include migration of people from rural to urban areas and the failure of town planning committees to include police stations and beat bases in new residential areas.
“A lot of graduates are unemployed. We are trying to get more investors into the state to provide more jobs. We also want more people to go into agriculture, especially locals, make transparent the licensing process for traders and hawkers and make welfare more accessible to those in need,” said Wong, who is also Selangor tourism, consumer affairs and environment executive councillor.
Together with Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah, Wong joined about 150 residents of Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, in a walk around the neighbourhood to raise awareness of crime prevention.
Sivarasa said Malaysia had a ratio of about one policeman to 260 citizens while the international recommended ratio is 1:250.
“The problem lies in how they are deployed. Out of the 100,000 police personnel, one-third are doing administrative work while another one-third are in the public order and safety department. In short, we have a police force that is not deployed efficiently,” he said.
Sivarasa added that residents now had to organise safety measures like setting up guardhouses and boom gates at their own expense, which was not the long-term answer to the problem.
“This walk organised by the Bandar Utama Residents Association (BURA) is a strong signal to the authorities that as taxpaying residents, they want better security,” he said