Gang rape cases enrage public

A mother and daughter signing the petition yesterday calling for a safer Johor Baru.

2007/06/17

JOHOR BARU, Sun:

A wave of criticism is building against the police here for responding too slowly to crime, following a brutal gang rape in Tampoi on Monday.
Several text message campaigns have criticised police efforts in fighting crime, especially violent ones, and a petition has collected thousands of signatures in less than a day.

Yesterday, hundreds of people at an anti-crime dialogue booed and heckled a deputy superintendent of police invited to speak by the dialogue’s organisers.

The backlash follows the gang rape of a young woman on Monday, and allegations by her family that police were slow to respond.

The 19-year-old woman was abducted with her boy-friend, and robbed.
The couple was brought to an abandoned hut in Taman Tampoi Indah where she was gang-raped by three of the four robbers while her boyfriend was forced to watch.

By Friday, police had detained 14 suspects believed to have been involved in similar cases over the last two months. The case on Monday was the fourth known case since late April.

The first was in Tampoi where three carjackers gang-raped a pregnant woman who was abducted with her son from a petrol station.

On May 22, another robbery-cum-gang rape took place in Pantai Lido, and about two weeks ago along the Pasir Gudang Highway.

Yesterday, hundreds of people at the Johor Baru Tiong- hua Federation’s anti-crime dialogue jeered DSP Leow Kian Heung, who heads the state crime prevention unit.

Leow cut short his speech and left.

Some 2,500 people were at the two-hour dialogue at the federation’s building here to sign a petition urging the authorities to redouble efforts to stamp out crime in Johor.

The petition collected some 5,000 signatures yesterday, said JBTF chairman Alex Lua.

A similar online petition which the federation posted on jbtalks.cc/petition/list.php on Friday night collected about 15,000 signatures in under 24 hours, he said.

Politicians have not been spared either.

"Since the gang rape, I’ve been bombarded with calls and SMSes from my constituents who are worried about the increase in violent crime," said Johor Jaya state assemblyman Tan Cher Puk.

State MCA chief Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek urged the public to remain calm. "Do not let racial sentiment go to your head, and turn the crime issue into an emotional topic," he said in Muar yesterday.

The priority should be to let the police investigate and capture the suspects as soon as possible. "The criminals picked their victims randomly and the public should not think that a particular race is being targeted."

Calling for the SMS campaigns to end, he described these as irresponsible acts which would stir up emotions.

He said the state MCA would arrange for Chinese association leaders to meet Johor police chief Datuk Hussin Ismail tomorrow to express their concern over violent crime.

He said the delegation would also call on Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, who is also the Johor Security and Safety Committee chairman, to beef up police manpower, patrol vehicles and equipment by the end of the month.

Visit the petition site at http://www.jbtalks.cc/petition/index.php