Snatching away promises
A few years back, at MidValley Megamall, one of my aunts induced my younger brother to sneak up to my mom, and snatch her handbag. Hilarity ensued: my mom fell on the ground, kicking air and grasping—strongly, I must add—her handbag, screaming for help. But that was the closest I ever got to the recent wave of snatch theft.
Though just last week, an ex-classmate, Sarah (not her real name, didn’t want to embarrass Julie Kuan on this column) went through the same thing. Only for real.
Since the wave of snatch theft all around urban Malaysia, what we have seen in terms of law enforcement is really half-hearted and pointless.
And it isn’t really merely snatch theft that’s rising; crime in general is on the rise. In Johor Bahru, just north of where I stay, there are even no-go zones for the befuddled police force there. And it would seem every Singaporean knows someone who has been mugged, had their handbags snatched or cars stolen in Johor Bahru in recent years, no less JBians themselves.
Part of the problem there is that the police force is undermanned: hard to believe it is a problem, what with high youth unemployment.
The thing is that this crime wave is combatable and our government knows how. They went through the trouble of creating a Royal Commission to study how to reform our not-particularly-effective police force.
And as middle class communities in urban Malaysia start putting up gates, often illegally, it really begs the question: what have changed since? The implementation of the Commission’s report is hazy at best, and the report has fallen out of public discourse. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi came into power promising nice, cosy, much-needed reforms, much like this one—and for a moment there, there was a glimmer of light at the end of a tunnel.
Turned out, it was a speeding train.
Comments
One Response to “Snatching away promises”
Leave a Reply
Armed robbery in daylight is the norm in JB nowadays. The robbers number 4~5 with ski mask, gloves and rambo knives. They have several cars to avoid suspicion.