City of Criminals: Johor Bahru

You’ve often heard me complain, warn and mourn over the frighteningly high incidence of violent crimes in Johor Bahru. Today, I’ll elaborate a bit using examples.

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November 25, 2006: A hotelier’s son was gunned down in his car. The victim and a lady friend were at a traffic light near his house in Jalan Kuning (a short walk from where I work).

A car pulled up behind, two men rushed them with a pistol, opened the door and tried to force him out. The lady friend accelerated and the gunman opened fire, hitting him. He was dead shortly after. The Star news story.

I also recall around the same time as the shooting case above, a cop was intentionally rammed by a car while he was checking on another car.

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New Year’s Day 2007: Four guys (perhaps drunk) threw rocks at cops and Federal Reserve Unit men at Danga Bay. They were apparently upset over something or other. The police also issued 379 summonses for various traffic offenses that night.

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4 January, 2007: Just last night around 4.30am, a Singaporean businessman got slashed to death in front of his house at Taman Permas Jaya. He and his girlfriend had run off in different directions to try and escape. Just another day (night) in the life (death) of Johor Bahru-ians.

UPDATE 5 January: Ooo, it seems the victim himself was actually a hardcore criminal wanted for theft and murder in Singapore! This may seem like poetic justice, but it actually makes things worse – Killer criminals run from Singapore and hide in JB and no one in charge knows, until hitmen kill him???!!!

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Now, this is not to say that Johor Bahru has worse violent crimes than the rest of Malaysia, or that only Johor Bahru has such crimes. These days, nowhere is safe – not even quiest little Ipoh town. But Johor Bahru seems to have a far higher and regular occurence of violent crimes.

Lee Kuan Yew, ever Malaya’s biggest fan, described Johor as “notorious for shootings, muggings and carjackings,” as readable in Asiaweek. He got blasted for that statement of course, and quickly apologized.

But actually living in said Johor, I unfortunately have to agree with the accusation. I guess it’s okay for us to complain about our own society, but when outsiders do it, it’s libel. Following are some of my closer-to-self tales…

A co-worker had her car stolen from the Giant parking lot, in midday. An acquiantance of my current landlady was robbed at knifepoint as he was opening his front gate. My previous landlady’s house had been broken into twice (thankfully while she was not home), one time after the robber lethally poisoned her dog.

I even actually KNOW someone who got raped, not long after moving to Johor Bahru. It’s different, much more a real threat, when the victim isn’t an acquaintance of a friends’ relative’s rumour.

Thus I highly, HIGHLY encouraged all girls who come to work in Johor Bahru to stay in apartments with security guards rather than rented houses in residential areas, and avoid going out at night or alone, even in the car. And always lock all doors and windows. And old post with stay safe tips readable here.

It’s somewhat of an irony then, that the person in charge of our entire nation’s law and order Tan Sri Musa Hassan used to be Johor’s chief of police in 2003. To be fair, one year in the post is not anywhere near enough time to clean up decades of degeneration. The Star on this topic.

What is the root cause of all of this crime? The Star reported on 16 October 2006 that 30% of the crimes committed in Johor were by Indians, report here. Although proportionally that means a higher percentage of the Indian population are committing crimes, do note that the other 70% of the crimes are by Chinese, Malays, immigrants and whatnot.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t pin the blame on anyone in particular, and these are stats for all crimes – not just the serious cases that get us freaked out. How many crimes, by the way? 23,890 in Johor up to August 2006 alone.

Some think that the influx of immigrants, such as from nearby Indonesia, is to blame. A standard response from governments whenever social ills are on the rise. An excerpt from an NECF report on Johor:

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In March 2006, at the Dewan Rakyat, the state capital was labelled as “sin city” and “crime city” by a Johor MP. It is believed that the security aspect in Johor Bahu has reached a worrying trend. The Singapore media has highlighted the issue with reports depicting Johor Baru as unsafe for tourists. In April, the state government sought an urgent meeting with Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Bakri Omar to address crime.

The eastern coast between Kota Tinggi, Penggerang and Mersing is one of the major entry points for illegal Indonesian migrants. Many of them have contributed to social problems in the communities.

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I think that several other factors play a part too. The flow of Singaporean dollars into Johor, particularly Johor Bahru, means accumulated wealth for our traders and businesses. But this also brings a burden all locals have to bear, as profit-mongering causes them to raise the prices so they can earn more.

Thus some financial pressure is formed on the poorer locals, along with envy and discontent with those who are raking in the converted Sing dollars. A little anarchist-socialist-communist redistribution of wealth is thus required.

I don’t see why Johor Bahru-ians have to raise prices just because Singaporeans are willing to spend, other than greed and wanting to screw over the comparatively rich islanders.

The land itself has a part to play. Johor is a wide, sprawling state and Johor Bahru a wide, sprawling city. There are lots of factories and other labour-intensive industries surrounding the Johor Bahru area. Meaning, lots of people living in poor conditions and oft neglected by the rest of the community.

People also pass through the city all the time on their way to and from Singapore. This translates to a lot of extra people who easily disappear into the crowd and are hard to trace.

Finally, the local police force may be trying their best. But they are understaffed, as reported here. Yet at the same time, there is never a shortage of cops doing the rounds, checking for overdue parking tickets.

In my opinion, we would all be really, doubly, trebley, tetris-ly grateful if they were all diverted to crime prevention, at least until more cops are recruited and trained.

So how DO we solve this very real and pressing problem? For one, we could get ordinary people to behave better. Normal folk flout the rules all the time in JB. Is it any wonder harder-cored criminals have even less respect for justice?

Perhaps, if we had strict strict STRICT laws like those in neighbouring Singapore, things would improve. There is no excuse for infringing on the rights of others – crime must be punished.

Although deep inside, the criminals will still be criminals, at least they would only act out their unlawful tendencies somewhere ELSE or not at all. As I say here.

To wit, the Customs coming into Johor Bahru from Singapore are quite lax. Sometimes they don’t check your passport at all. I explain it this way: If you are coming from Singapore, then you must have previously been cleared by their tough Singapore customs. So there’s no way you could be an illegal, or bringing contrabrand into Malaysia. So there’s no real need to check. I agree with the logic, if not the image this portrays.

I’d also raise the police personnel salary if I were in charge too, to show them that their job is a valued and appreciated one. I mean, who wants to be a law enforcer when they can hardly feed their familie, work long hours on a dangerous job, and are seldom appreciated and often lambasted? That’s gotta suck.

Finally, I believe that man can only do so much to help man. Tough laws may keep people’s behaviour in check, but they do nothing to remedy their hearts.

What is really needed is a transformation from within, a dying to the old and evil self, and a new birth as a person who loves other more than themself… And who loves God and His laws more than either.