KOTA KINABALU: Malaysians are living in fear, especially with violent crimes on the rise in the country, and the abolition of the Emergency Ordinance (EO) and the Internal Security Act (ISA) has made it worst.
“Life has become cheap. We fear for our safety as someone can just pull up at a traffic lightS or anywhere and shoot without any reason,” said Kinabatangan Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Bung Mokhtar.
As such he called on the government and the police to “sit down together” to come up with the best method and approach to find a solution to the matter.
“We need to find ways to ease the people’s fear and minds. There should be a method and approach that can be established to ensure that these culprits are taken to justice.
“I know that the opposition has been asking for the abolishment of the Ordinance and Act, but I am also very sure that they too are worried over their own safety. I do not think they want to be shot at point blank,” stressed Bung Mokhtar when contacted by The Borneo Post yesterday.
He said he had also expressed his worries over the matter at recent Parliament sittings, and “I am worried that for being so vocal on the issue, I will be shot dead the moment I step out of the hall.”
Bung Mokhtar, in expressing his frustration, said the underworld activities had gone out of hand, and the police were now unable to make any arrests without any proof.
“We need to get our heads together and find a way to take all these problems away,” he said, in supporting Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who had repeated his assertion that the police force had lost its bite following the government’s abolishment of the Emergency Ordinance laws and Internal Security Act (ISA).
Zahid said with violent crimes on the rise, and suspicions linking the sudden spate of shootings to gangland turf wars and firearms smuggling, he insisted on the need for preventive detention as a vital aid to assist crime busters.
Parti Bersatu Sabah information chief Datuk Johnny Mositun said police enforcement would deter criminals from their activities.
He said that having the law for preventive detention would help but not totally curb criminal activities.
Mositun said that the law had already been amended and before it was amended, law makers had debated the pros and cons of the amendment in Parliament.
“For the government of the day to look into Zahid’s proposal, he must first propose it to the government so that it can be brought up and debated in Parliament,” he stressed.
He, however, expressed his worries over the spate of violent crime happening in the country, and hoped the authorities would look into curbing it.