Criminal cases involving school students in the country is on the rise according to the number of reported cases over the last two years. Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said in 2007, a total of 1,838 criminal cases were reported where 3,383 students were arrested.
In a text of speech read by Kota Samarahan district police head of management ASP Mohd Fahdil Antum, who represented the district police chief, DSP Abang Abdillah Abang Majid yesterday, the IGP said of that figure, 3,241 students arrested were between 13 and 18 years old.

Based on the total number of cases, crimes involving school students are always on the rise and it has raised concerns among schools, parents and also the public. A total of 202 members and six Police Cadet Corps officers from six secondary schools from Samarahan District participated in the march to celebrate the national-level anniversary. The schools were Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Wira Penrissen, SMK Muara Tuang, SMK Kota Samarahan, SMK Asajaya, SMK Semera and SMK Pasentren Abdul Taib Mahmud, Sadong Jaya.

According to Musa, a total of 2,218 criminal cases involved students last year where 3,725 were arrested for various criminal offences. From the 3,725 arrested, 3,629 were between 13 and 18 years old and were involved in crimes like murder, rape, robbery, rioting and break-ins. A survey by the Malaysian Youth Development Research Institution (MYDRI) in collaboration with the Society Psychology and Development Study Centre (SPDSC) revealed that about 87 per cent of ‘mat rempit’ were between 14 and 25 years old.

About 48.1 per cent of ‘mat rempit’ do it (illegal motorbike racing) because of boredom, 38 per cent to spend their free time and 27.8 per cent because they were influenced by friends. “I believe that these social ills could be controlled if the students were given right exposure, clear explanation on ill effects and the consequences of being involved in criminal activities. Musa pointed out that the students’ involvement with the Police Cadet Corps would be able to instil discipline in them apart from preventing them from being involved in crimes.

Traders who sell inhalants to young children will be in trouble once a law to prohibit glue sniffing and abuse of inhalants in general is passed. National Association for Drug Prevention Malaysia (Pemadam) Secretary General Dato Kamilia Ibrahim said that there was a suggestion to make an anti-glue sniffing law as the problem is getting rampant in the country. In pointing out that the draft of the act is with the Attorney General and would be tabled in the next parliamentary sitting, she said the act would ban the misuse of inhalants.

This means that inhalant sellers can be convicted so that the items cannot be easily obtained by children. Those involved in glue sniffing are children aged 13 and below. If possible, we will prohibit sales to 13-year-olds and below. We don’t want glue normally used to repair shoes to be easily obtained. The glue is sold very cheaply and a group of 10 children may only have to fork out around 20 sen each. Pemadam will put extra effort to push the government to enforce the act after it is passed by parliament.

Current students’ involvement in drugs, she said that the group only represented 2.11 per cent or 261 people whom the National Anti-Dadah Agency (AADK) registered as drug addicts as of 2008. The total number of registered drug addicts in the whole country is 12,352, of whom 12,076 are males. The highest rate at 69.67 per cent are youths aged 19 to 29 while 28.22 per cent are adults. On Pemadam’s Drug Free Community by 2015, there were five target groups under the goal - family, community, schools, higher institutions of learning and the workforce.
The target for this year is the workforce and Pemadam will try its best to reach the target.

SIBU: An alert motorist kept her wits about her and foiled two men’s attempt to rob her last Thursday. The incident occurred about 7pm as she was pulling up at the front gate of her house at Terap Lane. While waiting for her daughter to open the gate, two men on a motorcycle came.
One of them came down from the bike and knocked on the passenger’s side of the window, gesturing to her to wind down the window. She refused.

The man reacted by smashing the window with what looked like a metal object. As he reached a hand to randomly search for valuables in the car, the woman honked to get the attention of her family or the neighbours. The hoot apparently caught the robbers off base. They bolted. The woman’s husband said he was not surprised that things like that would happen in his neighbourhood. “We don’t have sufficient street light in our neighbourhood,” he lamented, pointing out that they had been complaints of house breaking. There had also been suspicious characters appearing in the neighbourhood lately. He called on the police to beef up patrol in the area, and appealed to neighbours to be on the lookout for bad hats. And hope the local municipal council would also consider putting up more street lights in our area.

WE MUST ALERT ALL THE TIME, KEEP YOUR HOUSE COMPOUND LIGTH UP AT NIGHT...