Spooked by the latest robbery in the neighbourhood

Last Saturday's robbery send down chills of fear among the residents of the semi-detached neighbourhood of Taman Universiti in Johor Bahru. Robberies are thought to be incidents of the past in this rather peaceful township of over 60,000 in view of the absence of such cases for some time, this event soon become the latest hot topic of coffee-shops talk.

The robbery took place in the early morning at around 6.30 am at a home located along Jalan Kebangsaan 8 as the owner was waiting at the car porch for a ride with his brother for their daily trip to their Singapore's workplace. A group of men armed with 'parangs', believed to be of dark complexion stormed him by surprise by climbing over the gate and forced him back into his house. The rests are history but fortunately, the incident has not been marred by injury or loss of lives. What shook the residents was that the incident did not occur during odd hours or at an isolated place. As a matter of fact, children ply this street on daily basis to reach the nearby mosque from the hostel of their Islamic boarding school located just a couple of houses away at around the same time of the incident. This is further compounded by the fact that a senior police officer is staying just next door, his home signified by a large sign 'POLIS' hanged to the gate. In other words, these robbers are desperados, having no regards to the surroundings when committing the crime or maybe they are just faithful believers of the notion 'the most dangerous place is actually the safest place'.

What has gone wrong in our society? To many, incidents of such are merely given mild attention as one of the many hapennings around the country that contributes to the national statistics until when it actually happens so near to your doorsteps. Accusations have been levelled at the police force for their incompetence in eradicating the rampaging crimes only to be replied with a less convincing answer 'understaffed'. Notably, criminals are getting bolder and bolder when carrying out their modus operandi as they get more and more desperate by the days contributing to the ever increasing crime rates.

Many factors could have contributed to these phenomena, many in the sense are self-creation such as: -

1. Rise in betting activities particularly during this ongoing world cup season where people have greater tendencies to burglar or rob for quick bucks to settle their mounting debts from losing bets;
2. Endless attractive avenues are now available for gambling activities, be it legal or otherwise ranging from the basic visits to the casinos/betting outlets to the more sophisticated Internet gamblings;
3. Heavy clampdown on the underground DVD/VCDs trades resulting in massive loss of jobs among the peddlers who resort to committing crimes for alternative source of incomes;
4. Adverse effect of globalisation resulting in shift of manufacturing bases to other countries with cheaper cost resulting in aplenty loss of jobs affecting mostly the less educated group consisting mostly of migrants from smaller towns and rural areas to the city to earn a living;
5. Influx of illegal immigrants from neigbouring countries hoping for a share of the pie of the country's national economic development which is now getting more and more challenging in view of the increase in population (from both the legitimates and the illegal immigrants) as well as the tougher climate for economic growth;
6. Diminishing social values particularly amoung the younger generation stemming from the very basic problems of upbringing their children as parents could not afford to spend more time with their kids as much as they would like as in the past due to difficulty coping with the economic constraints;
7. Cheap and easier access to movies which tend to glamourise triads activities and crimes resulting in wrong social values being imparted to the young;
8. Abundant availability of unlicensed lending services offered by the unscrupulous Ah Longs at astonishing rates using high handed means to recover debts from defaulters compounding the tendency of these desperados to commit crimes to settle their debts;
9. Escalating financial pressures on the wage earners from the increase in the cost of living owing to the inflationary effects from the recent hikes in cost of fuels and utilities onto the other basic goods and services; and
10. Ill effects from the uncontrolled exposure of modern technology such as the Internet onto the younger generation.

Can you think of more?