Letter to YB Abd Rahman, MP Kota Belud and his reply

Dear Residents,

I have written to the MP for Kota Belud about his statements made in Parliament recently. Below is his reply to my email. I am not a politician and never profess to be one. But if an MP were to make such shallow statements this time about G&G, I think we need to set the record straight.

His prompt reply (which I appreciate) was very much trying to explain how a politician should behave in parliament but never answers to my questions.

I urge all of you to please email him at mpkotabelud@yahoo.com directly and ask him why we are in such a predicament and what the government is doing to help us with this very serious security problem facing our community.

It is time we stand up for what matters.

Thank you.

Best Regards,

Jeffrey Khoo
Advisor
11 Trees @ USJ

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November 13, 2009


YB Dato' Abdul Rahman Dahlan
Ahli Parlimen P169 Kota Belud


Dear sir,

I have been following your statements made in Parliament recently.

I am totally dismayed at your ignorance as to what is actually happening on the ground with regards to crime and the measures we have to take to defend ourselves in ensuring our own safety in our own homes. This was done primarily for the safety of our families and our community.

For your information, since we have implemented our G&G about a year ago, the crime rate has dropped almost to zero. We did not solve the problem to be honest, we have merely shifted the problem elsewhere.

In our minds, this has to happen as this is the direct failure of the government to provide adequate security to the citizens at large.

Are you aware that robberies, snatch thefts, break-ins, car-thefts, muggings were all the norm for us before we started this G&G?.

We have been lobbying for better security even during the previous adminstration's days, that is, during Tun Abdullah Badawi's time. There was nothing done while we continued to be "sitting ducks" for criminals.

By stating that we have created G&G communities just because we want to be "exclusive" is extremely shallow. May I know what you are thinking?

If our tax moneys are properly utlitised to fix our securiy problem, we can assure you we would like to save the headache of having monthly meetings etc, managing money and people and having to pay our RM50 share monthly. The money and time saved could be used for our families for other purposes. But prove to us that the crime rate is being brought under control. Then we will more than happy to remove our all fencing and security and we can go about our peaceful lives.

Personally, I think you need a reality check. Please stop making such frivilous statements. You are an MP so do your job and get your facts right.

I am copying my committee members on this email. I will also publish your email to all our residents so that they can also respond to you personally.

At any rate, we would like you to invite you to come and have a dialogue with us if you have the time so that you better understand the problems we are facing on the ground.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

J Khoo
Adviser
Persatuan Penduduk USJ 11/3, Subang Jaya, Selangor

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Dear Jeffrey, thank you for your email.

I have posted my reponse re: crime in Malaysia in my blog so you can have a balanced view of what transpired during the debate.

No one can deny, let a lone myself, that crime is on the rise.

My problem is this. I do not think the way opposition MPs debating the issue (especially budget debate) is right and appropriate.

Instead of talking about specific budgetary items, they went on a rampage to politicise the matter so that they could score some political brownie points. They made sweeping statements which to me were not helping people like you and your organization.

I appreciate what you and your fellow urbanites are feeling. But you must insist opposition MPs to leave rhetorics, generalization and grand standing aside. Otherwise, they are not helping your cause at all. In fact, I sometimes wonder whether they are more interested in the "political dividends" than solving the problem.

Do read my article in my blog http://www.mpkotabelud.blogspot.com.

I apologize in advance if the tone of the article is a bit on the harsher side. I just feel dissappointed that opposition MPs have failed you (atleast in that brief exchanges of points during that particular debate) in addressing the issue. The minister in his reply was trying hard to explain what the government was doing and yet all this was ridiculed by the opposition.

And by the way, if you happen to bump into any of the opposition MPs, ask them to highlight some of the goodwork the police has done all these years (surely there are some). If the police gets brickbats each and everytime the opposition MPs open their mouth to debate in parliament, they will be demoralized. And demoralized people are not that productive. That's human nature!

Thank you.

Abd Rahman Dahlan
MP for Kota Belud