Crime: Perception vs. Reality

There is no more emotive political issue than crime and that's because whatever the cold, hard facts say, we have all heard the frightening stories. This represents a challenge for responsible governments and an opportunity for irresponsible politicians.
For example, if a friend or relative is assaulted and robbed, we quite rightly express sympathy for the ordeal. But at that moment, who would stand up and say index crime fell 7.6 percent last year (fact) ahead of the Government's National Key Results Area target of 5 percent (also fact).
The problem is the perception of crime is in many ways more powerful and frightening than the reality.
This represents an open goal for the Opposition if it wants to exploit these perceptions and, yes, it already has. A quick look at Pakatan Rakyat's manifesto refers to "the rapid increase in crimes" which, whoever wrote this tawdry document must have known, is plain wrong. But this issue represents easy votes for PKR-DAP-PAS just as long as they don't let the facts stand in the way of a scary bedtime story. A rather cynical approach.
But Pakatan has a long history of ignoring the facts and exploiting the fears. In 2012, it ludicrously claimed that RM272.5 million was being spent under the GTP on public relations to convince the rakyat they were safe. The amount bandied about was nonsense and like so many Pakatan claims it was not backed up by any documentary evidence.
It nonetheless raises a good point. Perhaps the Government should be trying to convey the true story in a more forthright fashion. After all, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has long made it clear that the Government has an obligation to not only reduce crime – which it is doing – but to make the rakyat feel safe. The latter will almost certainly take longer to achieve than the actual crime targets as listed under the GTP.
In American politics they call crime the ultimate "dog whistle issue", which explain why politicians get elected on a platform of longer and longer prison sentences in a country that already imprisons more people than any other in the world. Despite this, the United States still manages to record 38 crimes per 1,000 people while in Malaysia, it is a mere 5.9 crimes per 1,000 people.
If this short but important election campaign gets dirty; if Pakatan Rakyat gets desperate, it might yet reach for that dog whistle. That will be a crime in itself and the victim will be, as ever, the facts.