The Barisan Nasional government has the same mentality as former US president George W Bush when it comes to dealing with security problems, said opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim today.

He said that the government seemed unable to think beyond harsher laws when it comes to dealing with escalating crime rates.

"This is exactly the Bush thinking. And this has affected a lot of innocent people," he told a press conference at the PKR headquarters.

NONEAnwar (left in photo) was responding to Home Minister Zahid Hamidi’s claim that some 260,000 criminals are now roaming free in the country due to the absence of the Emergency Ordinance (EO).

Zahid has been arguing for a new preventive detention law to replace the EO, and Anwar said that the approach has become “obsolete”.

“You kill someone, you get the death penalty. You smuggle drugs, you get the death penalty. What more harsher laws do you want? Now they want to detain people without trial,” Anwar asked.

“They say it’s preventive. When it’s someone else’s child then it’s okay. What if it’s your own child?” Anwar said.

“Every time there is a problem, they want to enforce harsher laws.”

He said that shootings and killings are a long-standing problem that had existed even during the times of the EO and the Internal Security Act (ISA).

“This has always been there,” he said.