Violence in London.....

The spectre of unabated Violence in London..... and wanton destruction of the last three nights sent a chill down the spine. More terrifying is the spontaneous mushrooming of many copycat incidents that threaten to spread all over the country. The police and the Government seem to be woefully unprepared for it with dire consequences to the country's reputation as a haven for good living and multi cultural tolerance. What has gone wrong? Is it police arrogance, high handedness and insensitivity towards the poor and the under privileged? Were there serious problems of unemployment and exorbitantly high living costs which have been swept under the carpet for many years? Has racist practices been a covert practice of the authorities, and there was a trigger for the conflagration? There are many soul searching questions that the Govt of UK has to find answers to, and fast.

On the national front, I can see that our nation is veering into a situation, that, given the same 'triggers' will mirror what is happening in London now. I am thinking about the consequences of our Amnesty Program. By the time we finish the registration process of legal and illegal aliens, including Maids, etc. we may have close to 4 million foreign workers in the country, most of them working for meagre wages, and probably no off days, and little medical aid. The category that will cause the most concern is of course the illegal aliens, now made "legal" by the biometric registration and the Amnesty program.

My confusion of this process is,... though they are legal now, are they better off than before? Are they being paid the same as the originally legal aliens and the maids(that is not saying much anyway), and are they adequately protected from harassment from unscrupulous agents and sometimes corrupt Police officers?

I am aware that even now, in certain locations, 'legal' migrants have rented whole apartments, and they have in turn brought in friends and relatives, most of them by covert means, who do what they can to scrounge for a living. Living more than 10 to an apartment, they loiter around in the daytime, when unemployed, and get themselves drunk on some strong beer(now you can get those beer with more than 12% alcohol for RM5 a 500ml can, eg Bavaria, Kingfisher Strong, etc) at nights, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Some of these aliens may also have come surreptitiously from countries that have made a transition from war to peace, and being ex guerrillas, they have no job and no money, just relatives in Malaysia.

With millions of these youths, underpaid and underemployed, displaced from their mother countries, with no future to look forward to, we are actually having pockets of distressed and disturbed people in many locations all over the country. If, though some reckless policy, or even high handed police action on some transgressions made by these aliens, it maybe easy for a flashpoint to be achieved under incendiary conditions, and the "London Experience" will be repeated here.

Calling for an Amnesty for these aliens is a noble thing to do, and the United Nations will be pleased, but can we look after them the same way as our citizens(that is not saying much again), fairly and equitably?

We need great political leadership soon, with long sighted vision for the country.

Keep eye on flashpoints..

London riots: Are aliens better off?