♠ Defending Ourselves

"The house does not rest on the ground, but upon a woman." - Mexican proverb

Caught that proverb while watching criminal minds. The drama doesnt make me feel safe, but that episode does.

I love NCIS, cos agent David makes me feel safe.

Now, the world is unsafe, living in Malaysia is worse as the GST is implemented.

Meaning, price of all things will go up. For those who can afford them, it's no big deal.

But for those who cant afford them during the booming period, they'll get more desperate.

Holiday season is upon us, thus most chinese are targeted right now.

Cases like snatch thieves and robberies are never solved in Malaysia, cos the police dont do their work and the government's bz handling Anuar's case to care bout the people.

My mum's coll got robbed after coming out from the bank, the couple thieves took a knife and cut the handbag. And when my mum's friend went to the police station to report bout it, the policeman told her that it cant be solved, straight into her face. The policeman just blatantly tell it to her face, not the usual, "There's a lot of crime lately. Thanks for reporting. We'll appointed the necessary forces at the area so that the next person will not be a victim."

I once lost my HP during my student year, and I went to report to the police station so I can get my HP number back. The policeman in charge that night told me to type the police report myself and I had to pay for the report as well.

Most victims of thievery in Malaysia know that reporting to the police station does nothing except to claim insurance or lost documents like IC, HP sim card, passport etc.

But they report as well, perhaps hoping the policemen would at least prevent another case happening at the same place to another person.

I dont trust the statistics given by the police force; it doesnt reveal how safe a city or town or country is.

Living in Singapore, I know it's a safer country than Malaysia, cos the country is small and the policemen do their work and we can actually sometimes see a couple of days later, the person is caught. And they have heavy punishments for those ppl who commit crime.

Such a big difference between Malaysia and Singapore, what big difference four decades have gone.

Malaysia has bigger land and natural resources. And there's many ppl resources to use as well. The army is huge, the police force is huge, the government sectors are huge, the budgets are huge.

But why cant the government manage any of those properly? Why crime increases and the supposed crime force not doing enough about it?

I'm sure other countries have crimes they cant solve, but at least the victims didnt leave the police station feeling desolute and even more depress than before they went in.

A lot of police forces around the world do have such problems with petty theft. But I just wish they would train better people to handle those people walking into the stations so the people can leave the station feeling comforted, even if they know they cant retrieve the lost items.

That, at least makes ppl feel that the country's gate-keeper has hope.

Well, I guess I'm just hallucinating bout a better world.

Malaysia will not change, cos nothing is "broken".

♠ Early Holiday

Happy Chinese New Year in advance to all, cos I know I will forget.

Last couple of weeks have been challenging and demanding.

I went back on a friday; second final weeks of January and I got robbed.

I wont talk bout the incident cos the memory is still fresh and I'll get traumatised again. I'll talk bout it in detail next time.

The sad thing is I got my sis involved. We got wounds; superficial ones. My sis's wound is going to take some time to heal. We are lucky we are not stabbed.

Cities in Malaysia have become unsafe, especially for travellers. Try to separate the passport and other important documents from visible bags.

For my case, I've lost everything I was carrying; camera, cash, clothes, passport, IC, driving license, work permit, hp etc.

I feel bad for losing my sis's camera cos the first time I got robbed, I lost my camera. Now's the second time. *Aih..

First thing to do after got robbed; make a police report and dont lose the original copy. All details of stolen items must be stated clearly or unable to be compensated.

I spent the first 2 days getting my IC and driving license using that police report.

In Malaysia, procedures to do stolen IC requires 2 original thumbs; if both thumbprint matches with the old record, one can get the IC in 2 days (in Putrajaya) or less than 1 week (other office). If one thumbprint doesnt match, one can get in less than 2 weeks (in Putrajaya), but requires followup like calling the collection dept every two weeks. If both thumbprint doesnt match, have to wait at least 6 months (in Putrajaya) to get the records. All those above applies for east and west malaysians.

But if you lost a passport due to robbery, the process is long and heavy.

In Malaysia, procedures to do stolen international passport requires IC (temporary IC requires a supporting doc to verify that temporary IC can be used) and birth cert.

Since I do not walk around with my birth cert with me everytime I go out of the house, I'd have to do a "Cabutan Sijil Lahir" or Birth Cert Pick at Putrajaya (headquarters in East Malaysia) which will only take couple of hours. So, I went to the "Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara" or JPN as we called it to do the birth cert pick only to be told I'd need to fill a diff form cos I'm from West Malaysia, and that process takes a few days. Crestfallen, I went back to the Imigration Dept to see if they have a different solution for my case.

Let me tell you one thing; Putrajaya's Imigration Department officers sux big time. Really bad services and not helpful in the least, the IC dept offers a lot better services. What big difference between local dept and international dept, what a sad image the Imigration dept is portraying to non-Malaysians cos non-Malaysians will not get the friendly treatment from the local dept cos they do not have IC.

After asking all the necessary questions, I called to the Imigration Dept in Sarawak; my birth state. Over the phone, I finally decided to go back to Sarawak to do my passport. Cos if I do in KL, I will have to go back to Putrajaya to talk to the same faces again, and I really do not want to talk to them at all based on my impression on them. Headquarters are supposedly to be faster since they are the head and supposedly have all the info; NOT in Putrajaya, KL.

Since my case is a robbery case, I have to prepare all the documents for the Imigration Dept to open an investigation case file. Since this is my first case, I think it will be less than 2 weeks than 1 month as they stated. And the officer who handles my case is a lot more polite and sweet than the sarcastic guy at KL.

So, I went back to Sarawak on the next morning's flight. Which is another adventure of itself. Which I will tell..another time.

Thus, here I am..working from home in Sarawak while waiting for my passport to approve. Called my company's HR to apply for emergency leaves and called my boss to tell him where I am and going to be for the next 2 weeks. Since I have projects to launch, I'd need to work from home.

After this, I'll have to learn the process of applying for stolen EP in Singapore.

And get new camera for Nat. And re-apply those bank cards. And get new sim card. And new moisturiser. And new dress. One step..at a time.