After the fact

I panicked tonight when I had to leave my son alone at home. I was on the highway when the feeling of unease I had felt all night threatened to overwhelm me and I felt like I had to turn back. I managed to swallow the panic and saw my errand through. After all, it wasn’t like he’s a child.. being almost eighteen qualifies him for almost adulthood. It was the news of the break in at my aunt’s house (KB);the burglary at my boss’s house (USJ) and the robbery in Section 5 where the owner, the ex police chief, succumbed to injuries after fighting with the robbers, protecting his family; the robbery in Subang Parade, let’s not mention the robbers who assaulted two strapping young men in their own home… a whole litany of incidents in my neighbourhood, in my hometown; places I’ve always felt were safe before. Is this the price we pay to live our lives the way we want to? Why is it we cannot depend on the police to protect us? Crimes it seems cannot be anticipated, predicted and sometimes perhaps not even solved or prosecuted. Have we lost our focus as a society when the mechanisms designed to protect victims and prosecute the perpetrators seem to be impotent? We react after the fact – deaths have an impact unlike assaults – predictable indignation, expressions of regret, exhotations for change then selective amnesia sets in.. and we conveniently forget yet again..

The man who died as a result of the robbery of his home lived a life of honour, courage and integrity. There was another man who died a a couple of years ago when he came to the aid of a snatch theft victim. Will their deaths change this climate of fear we live in today? Amid the sunny news of a reviving economy, smiling tourists and high tech toilets some may say ” a climate of fear” is an exaggeration and the rising crime rate is normal even debatable (I’m sure statistics can be found to prove otherwise) for a rapidly developing country like Malaysia.

I live in a house with an alarm system in an upper middle-class neighbourhood. A dead body was found in the playground behind my house,  a boy  was assaulted and the neighbour’s dog poisoned and the house ransacked; all within a radius of less than 1 km from my house.  Neighbourhood associations hire their own security guards and we are no exception. I’m not paranoid but is it too much to ask to feel safe in one’s own home in a neighbourhood like USJ Subang Jaya? Perhaps it’s too much to ask , after all it seems even VIP’s are not safe in Putrajaya. If we live in relative insecurity, how do others feel in other neighbourhoods?

Must it be like the water we pay for to use yet is undrinkable unless we treat it and filter it at our own expense? Our security must be our own responsibility – privatised and outsourced.. Is it because the authorities feel we have the means and can afford it like we can afford the toll hikes? Or is it just that our police departments have other fish to fry… road blocks to check drivers using handphones, lovers in isolated spots…  patroling neighbourhoods doesn’t seem to be on the agenda. So do we continue to live in fear?