KUCHING: State DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen said he would cooperate with the police who are investigating his recent statement that spiraling violence might be a BN ploy to enact preventive laws.
“I will give my full cooperation to the police, and I will continue to push that police concentrate on fi ghting crime,” Chong, who is also Bandar Kuching MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman, told a press conference at DAP headquarters here yesterday.
He said police had yet to approach him for a statement.
Chong opined that security was now a paramount concern of the public, but the police seemed unable to instill a sense of security.
“The rising crime is not only leaving the people to live in fear, but it also incurs economic loss with the increasing number of cable and drain cover thefts.”
He said the DAP believed the main cause of the escalating crime rate was due to insuffi cient number of policemen assigned to f ight crime, and not the abol it ion of the Emergency Ordinanc e (EO) and other preventive laws.
Chong said at least half of the police force should be on the ground to curb crime.
He claimed at the moment only nine per cent were assigned to criminal investigations, 3.8 per cent narcotic investigations, and 1.4 per cent commercial investigations.
Forty per cent are assigned to administrative, management and logistics units, he added.
Chong said the police report lodged by Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin against him was “nothing, but an attempt by Umno to side t rack the security issue and divert public attention on the deteriorating state of public security and the failure on the part of the Home Ministry in solving the escalating crime rate”.
Urging Khairy to keep his Umno brand of politics out of the state, Chong said as Umno Youth chief, he should be channeling his energy to help solve crimes and not make baseless allegations against the opposition.
Meanwhile, the police yesterday recorded statements from The Borneo Post and Utusan Borneo reporters who covered Chong’s press conference on Aug 12.