My objective of this letter is to raise the public awareness on pressuring our police force. My own brother was assaulted in a recent robbery in Petaling Jaya which happened on October 6.

He was attacked by four men armed with a parang early in the morning at a McDonald restaurant at SS2. He lost his middle fingers trying to get his thumb drive back after the men took away his laptop by force.

By taking his laptop bag and trying to protect himself from the attack, one of the men then knifed my brother on his head. The customers and the employees at the fast-food restaurant were stunned and they did not even dare make a noise.

My brother was sent by my father to the emergency room while police stood in the restaurant doing nothing. All they said was that they were waiting for the ambulance to come!

As a Malaysian, I'm frustrated, furious and ashamed of hearing of endless attacks, assaults, robberies, rapes and snatch thefts which happen in my own country. The frequency of these crimes are reaching very alarming levels and I don't see our own government and police force doing anything effective to deter these crimes.

I'm tired of all this. I am ashamed of telling my colleagues in America that Malaysia is a beautiful and safe country that they should visit. I just can’t get that sentence out of my mouth. I cannot tell them it's a safe country to travel to because I'm terrified myself of going out at night in PJ/KL.

Let's do a simple poll. How many of you know someone who was attacked, robbed or injured in the past two years? I bet 90%, if not all of you. I myself am a petty theft victim, the incident occurring in Bangsar in 2004.

And with my brother's case, it's just getting out of control. My father was telling me that the police are not going to do anything. My mother was just crying and told me that my brother was lucky to have his life back.

Well, it's definitely not luck. Our safety in the country does not depend on luck. It depends on the police and the military force that we help to pay for to safeguard our lives and properties. I have had enough of the police telling me that they cannot anything because there are just too many of these thieves/robbers.

How are we to live in our own country in constant fear everyday? We don't go out of our houses everyday? We don't go out at night? We lock our houses with more locks and set the most sensitive and most expensive alarms and hope for the best?

Malaysia is moving backwards. If the government cannot provide a secure and safe environment for the people to live in, how are we going to attract investors and tourists to visit Malaysia? I simply don't believe that Malaysia can achieve Vision 2020 with the current social instability. I simply don't.

I'm also disappointed to know that social safety and crime deterrence are not on the agenda of any of the political candidates for the upcoming Umno elections. This is one of the fundamental rights of the citizens. Living in safe environment is as important as the ability to have food, to have the freedom of speech.

We are all educated and professional. My own brother was injured really bad in these outrageous crimes that police are giving up on deterring. I pray hard that none of your readers of the families will have to suffer like him.

There must be something that all of us can do. We need to pressure the government and the police to step up to the plate and protect the lives and properties of all Malaysians. This is their responsibility.