KUCHING: The deployment of professional tactics and ideas to commit crimes in recent times should serve as a wake-up call for the police and other enforcement agencies to stay one step ahead of the criminals.
Minister of Tourism Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg said new mechanisms, including the use of more advanced closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV), must be put in place to counter criminals who seemed to have turned ‘professionals’.
“The police and other relevant authorities need to be alert to deal with these criminals,” he told journalists after opening a seminar on the transformation programme and its impact on the nation’s security at a hotel here yesterday.
He said the police needed to move faster because the emergence of new crimes, especially those involving sophisticated means and ideas, were sending chills down the spine of the people.
“It seems that criminals have also turned professionals nowadays, with many types of crimes changing with the time.”
Abang Johari did not give examples of the “new crimes”, but the few cases that had struck fear in the people in recent months include the chopping of a senior manager’s hand while she was having breakfast here; the deadly shooting of a man in broad daylight while he was having a meal with friends in a coffee shop at Green Heights here; and the fatal shooting of a businessman in Sibu.
Some 1,000 individuals attended the seminar themed ‘1Voice, 1Destiny, 1Malaysia’ organised by Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association (SDGA).
Abang Johari, who is also Minister of Housing, believed that the seminar would brainstorm some suggestions for the police.
“They (SDGA) will discuss with the police on how to reduce crime. In fact, there are already new mechanisms in place, such as dispatching more Rela personnel to the ground as well as putting up CCTVs.”
On a different topic, he expressed confidence that the federal government would continue to engage talented Sarawakians in carrying out its transformation plans.
“That is the policy of the federal government, and there is one example for you to see, (Performance Management and Delivery Unit chief executive officer Dato Sri) Idris Jala, a Sarawakian heading the transformation programmes.”
Abang Johari added: “The thing now is you must engage yourself.”
For instance, he said, a Sarawakian corporation has been in operation in Cyberjaya for some time already, but not many locals in the state are aware of it.