35 shootings in four months. Ten shootings in seven days. Four straight shootings in 26 hours. No, I'm not talking about cruelty in Malay film industry. I'm talking about our own safety in our own country. I've said it many times, and I'm going to say it again, and you may want to repeat after me: This country is going to the dogs.
You'd normally rely on the government to somehow do the right thing in chaos and crisis, like when our country was attacked by currency pirates, Sulu pirates, Lee Kuan Yew. But now the leadership appears to be all at sea. I know it's difficult to come around after a bruising election, but I'm sure the government is game enough to conjure up something sensible to calm the nerves.
But this time around, the government just flailed on with some foggy statements and feeble gestures to quell the widespread fears and disquiet. Butt of the blame fell squarely on the repeal of the Emergency Ordinance, although the connection is, at best, circumstantial. The IGP reassured us that all victims were targets, meaning all shootings were not random or drive-by types, meaning we're not tailspinning into downtown Detroit. Nobody is actually celebrating. A shooting is a shooting, like fat is fat.
Listen to TV3. Funny how they'd proudly report that cases are being investigated under kanun keseksaan dalam kurungan or something, which makes it all appear like somebody's pet cat has been abused. Call it kanun or lanun for all I care, please catch the culprits now.
Less funny was the move to promote five very senior police officers to a newly created rank of senior deputy or deputy senior something, with better pay, perks and all, while the bloodshed went on and on. I'm sure these good officers wouldn't mind deferring their promotion to a quieter time, or at least when one or two hotshots are nabbed.
But the most bizarre of all was the statistics bandied about by the home minister in Mingguan Malaysia, itself no less bizarre. The minister alleged that EO abolition had freed 2,600 criminals. These criminals each has 10 right-hand men, who in turn have another 10 right-hand men each. This elegant snowball effect gives us a staggering total of 260,000 criminals on the run and lurking in your neighbourhood. But why stop at 260,000? How about their cousins, classmates, clients, and sundry sympathizers? That's another 10 each, and the total now is 2.6 million, more than 10% of the population. The minister is a PhD, so he can't be wrong. My only hope left is that, since it's Mingguan Malaysia, the minister has been grossly misquoted. He meant right-handed men, not right-hand men. So it's only 2600 criminals, the rest are just right-handed men, like you and me.
The statements and statistics are nothing more than a clever misdirection. Serious crimes are surging, with or without EO, ETP, ECER, EBITDA and other abbreviations. What's changed is the MO, another abbreviation. It's strange that nobody has questioned why the shootings spiked after the election. Is this pure coincidence? Or the criminals are partly motivated by the chance to taunt and thumb their nose at the 47% government and the tough-talking home minister. Who knows. You might get a PhD if you could, with clever statistics, prove this right or wrong.
It's a sad, sad situation. Crime has declined sharply across the civilized world in spite of the deep recession. While committing crime is out of fashion everywhere, it's all vogue here. Nobody has explicitly blamed the police, apart from mild insinuation from DAP. I wouldn't want to upset anybody who carries a gun. But face the facts. 35 suspects and none was caught. One had his film-star footage posted across all media. It's a no-brainer that the main deterrent to crime is the fear of being caught. But what's there to fear if nobody gets caught? Of course, the usual excuses just rolled in, inadequate police numbers, rampant gun-running, Indian gangster movies, red bean army.
To be fair, how far should the police go if people are hell-bent on bashing each other. At the core is the all-round culture and climate of corruption, law-breaking and other wrong-doings. Commercial extortion is rising and hiding behind the outrageous price of food and fruits, data plans, astro packages, medical degrees, check-in luggage, nasi arab, the list is long. Violent crimes and confrontations should blend in quite nicely.
There's no sign of a breather. While I'm writing this the tally has increased to 37 with a couple of shootings reported yesterday. And police made a breakthrough finally when they arrested and charged......a taxi driver. No big deal, half of the taxi drivers on the road should be arrested and charged anyway. The government isn't any closer to nailing the problem. Nobody has a clue. Nobody except Nancy Shukri. The minister suspects the shootings are mostly gangland revenge perpetrated by ex-EO inmates. Clever girl. And she's dead set on replacing EO with another preventive law (maybe XXL or another suitable abbreviation being worked out in a lab in Putrajaya). DAP reacted by appointing Teresa Kok to look into this. PKR should let Elizabeth Wong enter the fray. Another turf war is brewing up.
While waiting for Nancy and Teresa, I think we should immediately stop the on-going shooting of KL Gangster 3. Nobody has yet proved any causal link between the KL Gangster shootings and the current spate of shootings. But, as Ronald Reagan has wisely reasoned out, why take the chance?
.
