The country is infested with terrorists and it has become increasingly dangerous. A terrorist is anyone who uses violence to cause harm to civilians. Today sadly, Malaysians and a vast majority are living in fear. Ask any child, or a mother or a daughter and even male adults and the answer is ‘yes’, they are living in fear.

Let us not go far, ask any policeman and the answer is the same. People are living in fear and the police are finding it increasingly difficult to contain the increasing crime rate. Crime is everywhere and it has become an endemic crisis. Open the newspapers and it is no more shocking to read of headless bodies lying in drains or in parks or anywhere for that matter.

Murders are common, robberies are a daily occurrence, snatch thefts are rampant, hired killings seem to the fashion of the day. What has happened to our once lovely country? People are being terrorised. Insomnia has become a serious problem due to the fear of our homes being broken into in the nights by die-hard robbers, murderers and rapists.

Terrorists are living right in our own neighbourhoods! It is frightening even to go for a walk at our neighbourhood padang . Yet nobody seem to be concerned. The police have become helpless as they are severely short of manpower.

The government has become absolutely delinquent with the law and order in the country. I use the word delinquent and I will be brutally frank here. They are in a total state of denial as if all is fine and dandy. Nobody in the government is concerned anymore as they are all - and I mean all - are fighting among themselves in their respective parties for power. Every politician is more concerned about his own political power.

Everyone is more concerned about the number of body guards he or she could employ. They are more concerned about how long they can cling on to power. This is not just the branch official but it goes right up to the national level. Our cabinet ministers themselves are too busy fighting among themselves or too busy ‘outdoing’ or ‘outsmarting’ each other to win the highest party posts.

They have no time for the people or for the country. Even the prime minister and the deputy prime minister have totally lost all sense of direction in the management of the country. They have run out of all ideas as far as people management and the people’s welfare. Shockingly and shamefully, even the women politicians have started throwing chairs at one another at party meetings.

Yes, while the country has been hit extremely hard with crimes of all kinds, yet nothing is being done to eradicate this crime that has seriously caused immense pain among the citizens. I for one, for the life of me, cannot understand why no one - and I repeat nobody - seems to be concerned about the crime infestation in this country. It is extremely serious, akin to a massive plague that has hit the country.

Just yesterday a senior citizen of 85 years of age told me he was confronted by a man with a chopper at the ATM machine after he withdrew RM 5000.00 and he lost everything including his watch and wallet plus his hand phone.

Having said the above I would like to suggest the following. It is extremely important that the government bring in the nation’s defence services to the fore to serve in the security of the country and the people. Bring in the military, the air force and the navy to save our own citizens against the ‘inside terrorists’ that seem to survive within the masses.

Let the defence services assign their soldiers on the streets be it at commercial centres like Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Johore Bahru and Penang etc and also at every housing estate. Let them be heavily armed and be able to nab any criminal on the road.. We are not at war but we are at war against terrorists in our own country. The air force could use its reconnaissance services to do air surveillance and track down criminals till their very eradication.

Our navy could be brought in to eradicate the massive illegal immigrants that seem to be pervading this country. All defence personnel should have the powers to seize and arrest all criminals. This means our defense services work on parallel system with our Royal Police Force.

Curfew hours: I would suggest that the government impose strict curfew hours from 2am to 6am in the country. In other words no activity of any kind except life-saving functions like medical services. All commercial and social activities should be strictly prohibited from 2am to 6am. Some leeway could be given to traveling passengers to and from airports, railway stations and bus stations.

Coded crime prevention: Let the citizens at large be the eyes and ears of the nation’s security and crime prevention through a secret coded programme. This means our government come up with an incentive programme that could itself be a self-enrichment programme in the interest of the citizens. Let every citizen with an identity card be coded with his bank account. Every time a citizen delivers information on the criminal activities of anybody else - be it his own neighbour or even his own gang of criminals - he could be automatically rewarded with a preset financial reward.

This could be calibrated accordingly. However this programme should be free from any witness participation in the criminal’s court hearings. The law enforcement takes its own course of action based on information provided by the secret code participant. This incentive could also be given to the law enforcement personnel involved in crime eradication. We could be shocked on the extent to which crime could be annihilated.

I would propose that the above crime eradication programme be set for a trial period of one year after which our parliament would discuss the need to continue with the same based on need and necessities.

Could we as Malaysians create a Malaysia totally free from crime or fear? I would wish for the day when we don’t even have to lock our gates or our doors at any time of the day.