Reported: World Justice Project: Malaysia is #1
safest in 19 middle income countries, #12 safest overall, ahead of USA and
Britain
Among the
Sources:
What was
discovered:-
·
The
World Justice Project (‘WJP’) Rule of Law Index offers a detailed and comprehensive
picture of the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law in practice.
·
The
Rule of Law Index utilized by WJP utilizes 9 factors (which are broken down
further into 52 sub-factors) to determine a countries position vis a’ vis its
compliance with the rule of law, namely:-
(i)
Limited
Government Powers
(ii) Absence of Corruption
(iii) Order and Security
(iv) Fundamental Rights
(v) Open Government
(vi) Effective Regulatory Enforcement
(vii) Effective Civil Justice
(viii) Effective Criminal Justice
(ix) Informal Justice
·
The
result of the WJP study are represented to be obtained from ‘general population
polls’ as well as ‘experts’ in civil and commercial law, criminal justice,
labour law and public health. No details are available on the website to
determine the details of the persons polled. The poll also avers to Malaysia
being an upper middle income country which suggests that the polls may not be a
reflection of the entire diversity of the citizens of Malaysia.
·
The
result of the WJP study was gathered from polling done in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh
and Johor Bahru and thus cannot be said to be an accurate reflection of the
entire Malaysia.
·
It
must be noted that Malaysia polled below the East Asia and Pacific average
standards in the following items:-
(i)
government
powers limited by judiciary;
(ii)
independent
auditing and review;
(iii)
government
officials sanctioned for misconduct;
(iv)
government
powers limited by non-governmental checks;
(v)
absence
of corruption in the executive branch;
(vi)
freedom
of assembly and association;
(vii)
arbitrary
interference of privacy;
(viii) freedom of religion and belief;
(ix)
freedom
of opinion and expression;
(x)
due
process of law;
(xi)
criminal
system is free of improper government influence;
(xii)
criminal
system is free of discrimination;
(xiii) correctional system is effective;
(xiv) civil justice is free of improper
government influence;
(xv)
laws
are stable;
(xvi) right to petition and public
participation;
(xvii) official drafts of laws are available;
(xviii) official information requested is
available; and
(xix) the government does not expropriate
without adequate compensation.
·
Malaysia
did poll above the East Asia and Pacific average standards in the following
items:-
(i)
civil
conflict is effectively limited;
(ii)
people
do not resort to violence to redress grievances; and
(iii)
civil
justice is free of corruption.
·
The
poll did however indicate that the ‘absence of crime’ did rank just below the
East Asia and Pacific average standards.
·
The
Rule of Law index is not meant to measure safety but rather the compliance with
the rule of law.
Reported: Malaysia is #1
safest and most peaceful country in South East Asia, #4 safest and peaceful in
Asia Pacific, #19 safest and peaceful globally.
Among the
Sources:-
“Malaysia
Safest Country in South East Asia”
“Muhyiddin
added the Global Peace Index had cited Malaysia as a safe country and most
peaceful in South East Asia, the fourth in Asia Pacific and number 19 globally”
What was discovered:-
·
Reference
to Global Peace Index (‘GPI') can be seen at http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi-data/
·
GPI
is used in the study of the relative Peacefulness
of a Country and not of a Country’s ‘Safety’
·
GPI
includes 23 indicators ranging from a nation’s level of military expenditure to
its relations with neighbouring countries and the level of respect for human
rights.
·
Malaysia
scored 1.485 on the GPI indicating that it is a relatively peaceful country (1
being the most peaceful, 5 being the least). The GPI does not have any measure
of the comparative ‘safety’ of a Country.
·
Out
of 23 indicators in the GPI, only 2 deal with crime, namely:-
(i)
Perceived
Criminality in Society; and
(ii)
Violent
Crime.
·
Malaysia
received a score of 2/5 for each of the ‘crime indicators’ mentioned above
which ranked as two of the 8 highest scores of the 23 indicators in the GPI.
·
However, Malaysia’s ‘good’ rankings in the GPI
can be attributed to the 12 of the 23 indicators which were given scores of 1.0
which included but were not limited to items such as access to weapons,
terrorise acts, UN Peacekeeping funding, heavy weapons, weapons exports,
displaced people and so forth.
Reported: Index crime fell by 10.1%; Street crime
fell by 43% (between Jan – May 2012)
Definition: Index Crime
Index Crime is defined as “crimes which are serious in nature and which
occur with sufficient frequency and regularity that they can serve as an index
to the overall crime situation in Malaysia”.
Currently,
the Index Crime are (1) theft, (2) snatch theft, (3) motorcycle theft, (4) car
theft, (5) heavy machinery theft, (6) break-in day, (7) break-in night, (8)
unarmed gang robbery, (9) unarmed robbery, (10) armed gang robbery, (11) armed
robbery, (12) assault, (13) rape, (14) murder.
(GTP annual report 2011, page 61)
Street Crime
Defined
as consisting of “snatch theft, unarmed gang robbery and unarmed robbery”
(GTP annual report 2011, page 64)
Among the
Sources:
Government
Transformation Programme (‘GTP’) Annual Report 2011, pages 61 until 64.
What was
discovered:-
·
Street
crime was classified to include
robbery with firearms and without firearms by Pemandu’s CEO Datuk Seri Idris
Jala in an interview with the Star newspaper. The inclusion of this category
may have ‘altered’ the statistics of street crime. No reason was given for such
inclusion.
·
In
the same interview, Datuk Seri Idris Jala went on to differentiate Street crime
into crimes ‘with firearms’ (i.e. with guns) and ‘without firearms’ (i.e.
knives, parangs, etc.).
·
There
is a clear ‘shifting of goal posts’ in the definition of ‘Street Crime’ i.e.
the GTP’s own annual report 2010 had defined ‘Street Crime’ as consisting only
of snatch
theft, unarmed gang robbery
and unarmed robbery.
Datuk Seri Idris Jala’s interview rather
contradicts the statements of Pemandu's
director Eugene Teh Yee.
·
Drop
in Crime Index may be due to reduction in Vehicular
Theft i.e. encompassing cars, machinery and motorcycles.
Surveys conducted
by TNS Research International reveal the following in 2011:-
“The survey in this wave saw an obvious decrease in all
categories, especially vehicle related crimes (from 53.8% in January 2011 to
49.2% in May 2011)”
·
Overall,
the lack of transparency in terms of how these statistics are measured cast
doubts over the validity of such statistics i.e. what are the actual numbers? There
is no access to data and/or the break down on what are the percentages of the
crimes reported which had ‘contributed’ to the Index Crimes and Street Crimes
are. The only statement given thus far is that these statistics are made based
on data collected by the PDRM based on police reports lodged.
·
Crime
Index is defined in GTP Annual Report 2010 as crimes “which
are serious in nature and which occur with sufficient frequency and regularity”. Does this mean that the type of crimes in the
Crime Index can change depending on the frequency and regularity in which they
occur?
·
In a
recent article entitled ‘Hishammuddin: NKRA initiative to tackle street crime expanded”, Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein was
quoted as saying “…although in reality the crime index did not show any improvement,
the government's efforts to tackle crime in the country had earned the praise
of outsiders such as the International Free Panel participated by Singapore,
the United Kingdom and the United States.”
Other methods of measuring safety in
Malaysia?
(1) Numbeo
Serbian based
website ‘numbeo’ ranked the Crime Index in Malaysia at 69.19% and Safety at
30.81% with the percentages meaning as follows:-
(i) Crime Index is estimation of overall level of crime in
a given city or a country. Crime Levels up to 50 are reasonable, and crime
index levels more than 100 are too high.
(ii) Safety index is, on the other way, quite opposite of
crime index. If the city has high safety index, it is considered very safe.
The indices
taken into account by this website in determining crime and safety index can be
seen at http://www.numbeo.com/crime/city_result.jsp?country=Malaysia&city=Kuala+Lumpur
We would however urge readers to note
that the date collated in this website must be taken with a pinch of salt as
they deal take general online polls from undetermined persons and have only
polled Kuala Lumpur and not the whole of Malaysia. In addition, the indices
used appear to be very different from those referred to by Malaysian
authorities.
(2) NationMaster
Australian based website
‘NationMaster.com’ has ranked Malaysia as no. 37 out of 82 countries in the
number of ‘crimes’ committed based on
indices which can be seen at http://www.nationmaster.com/country/my-malaysia/cri-crime.
Statistics are collated and compiled by NationMaster from such sources
as the CIA World Factbook, United Nations, World Health Organization, World
Bank, World Resources Institute, UNESCO, UNICEF and OECD.
Is the GTP the MAIN or ONLY cause of
the perceived drop in Crime Statistics?
Other factors
may include:-
1) Better Economy/Wealth inequality
2) Perceived inaccuracy of Crime
Statistics
·
Crime
Statistics are based on reports lodged
·
There
is fear/reluctance among members of public to lodge police reports.
·
Index
and Statistics are not the best way to measure Crime.
·
How
to measure unreported crimes?
·
Crime
Index fails to take into account the ‘dark figures’ i.e. unreported crimes
·
How
many cases are successfully
3) Gated Communities
4) Better Policing
n/b:
1) All data collated in this Article was
taken off the internet utilizing only google searches.
2) None of the websites referred to or
mentioned in this Article belong to or is the product of the author of this
Article and credit is duly given by the Author to the creators of such
websites.
3) Some of the data researched has been compared
before. Please refer:-
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