Segenting KRA

14 July 2009 | 207 views

On the occasion of his 100 days in office, the Prime Minister spelt out six national Key Results Areas (KRA).

Probably, the thinking is that these are the areas that most concern the public and if reasonable improvement can be demonstrated over the next few years leading up to the general election, there’s a good chance of a solid victory for Najib and Barisan Nasional.

I agree.

The six KRAs are crime prevention, combating corruption, providing greater access to quality and affordable education, improving the quality of life for the poor, improving rural infrastructure and upgrading public transportation in the medium term.

As with many things, actual improvement is not as crucial as improved perception.

Case in point, crime prevention. You need not have been the victim of a crime to feel unsafe.

Crimes in your neighbourhood, friends and relatives falling victim to burglaries and thefts, crime stories in newspapers — these things shape your perception of crime.

The perception gets worse when these things happen around you but the authorities claim the situation is under control.

All this increases public sceptism and despair.

As far as crime prevention is concerned, Najib needs to have the public feel safe and secure again.

It is not going to be easy, especially when the criminals seem to be only part of the problem:

… the government allocated the PDRM RM8 billion to upgrade itself under the 9th Malaysia Plan, a tripling of their allocation under the 8th Malaysia Plan.

Despite the huge extra amounts we are spending on policing, there has been no dent on our crime problem … [Tengku Razaleigh in a speech on June 10]

RM8 billion is a lot of money, especially when it’s taxpayers’ money.

It makes you wonder whether we would have been better off paying local crime lords and kingpins to rein in their underlings, clamp down on foreign worker-criminals, and put the fear of God in the Mat Rempit.

I think they’d have been more than happy do it for RM8 billion over five years.

Right about now, you would be hard pressed to find people who would say the money allocated to the police has been well spent.

It also does not help that the government surrenders all too easily at the slightest hint of opposition to the full implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operations and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police.

And there is news that IGP Musa Hassan will get his contract extended when it expires in September.

I have nothing personal against the man, but I do not see how public perception of the police and its ability to prevent crime can be turned around when you retain the services of a person under whose watch an expenditure of RM8 billion amounted to nothing more than continued concern over public safety and security, as well as continued resistance from the police force to the implementation of the IPCMC.

Clearly, if Najib does nothing that can turn around public perception of the police, he will not be able to turn around public perception of crime in this country.

I pray that we are succesful in our crime prevention efforts, as all of us want to feel safe again.

But given the issues, I do not see how Najib is going to achieve that.

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