The Home Ministry has retracted a written reply to Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua on Selangor’s crime rate, citing typographical error.

Pua had held a press conference yesterday complaining that the crime rate had increased, based on figures in the reply.

NONE He complained that crime data had not been sufficient and that the upturn had occurred despite crime prevention being one of seven top national key result areas (NKRA) under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), and many residential communities have become gated communities.

However, Home Ministry secretary-general Abdul Rahim Mohamad Radzi (left) issued a statement today saying that a correction had been sent to the Parliament, which shows a drop for both the Selangor and national crime index.

"Therefore, the reply based on the prior data as recieved by Pua is null and void.

azlan "This also has nothing to do with the Petaling Jaya MP’s accusation that the GTP program has failed," he said, pointing out that the letter of correction was sent on June 18.

The new figures showed what amounts to a 19.4 percent drop in Selangor’s crime rate since 2009, and a 24.7 percent drop nationwide. The GTP was announced in January 2010.

He said the correct figure was 51,393 cases in Selangor in 2006; 58,592 cases in 2007; 57,752 cases in 2008; 54,994 cases in 2009; 49,469 cases in 2010 and 44,302 cases in 2011.  

At the national level, he said the crime index stood at 196,780 cases in 2006; 209,582 cases in 2007; 211,645 cases in 2008; 209,817 cases in 2009; 177,520 cases in 2010 and 157,891 cases in 2011.