Sunway assists in sweeping crime off our streets

A Malaysian Crime Prevention Workshop for Young Adults was recently held in Sunway University College. The workshop was an awareness campaign aimed to educate participants on ways to prevent psychosocial crimes that included personal safety and commercial crimes.

Approximately 200 people from a total of 19 schools, colleges and churches participated in this workshop comprising Form 4, Form 5, and Form 6 students.

Sunway student helper holding up a sign of one of the crime categories for a focus group discussion.

Associate Professor Dr. Teoh Hsien-Jin, Head of School of Health and Natural Sciences, Sunway University College and EXCO Member of the Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF, Selangor Chapter) shared insights on the role of MCPF. He said “Over the years, public campaigns and workshops have been organized all over Klang Valley in an attempt to educate the public especially students from various universities and colleges as they are the future generation of working citizens”.

The workshop began with a talk by DSP Zaleha binti Haji Md Jais from Selangor Police headquarters who enlightened her audience with the current Selangor crime statistics. The number of reported crime rates has reduced from 4,1015 in 2009 to 3,5651 in 2010 in Selangor. However, she added that murders as well as theft of motorcycles and cars are on the rise.

Participants listening to DSP Zaleha’s talk on crime rates in Selangor.

The second speaker Mr. Paul Linus, Head of the Law Department, Sunway University College delivered a talk on commercial crime said “People’s perception of crime is skewed towards murder and less on commercial crime such as swindling and financial fraud. The increase in the use of technology has created more sophisticated criminals that are able to sound persuasive enough to convince people to succumb to their fraud”.

The workshop proceeded with a focus group discussion aimed to increase awareness and responsibility towards permitting crime. Topics of discussion included how an individual can increase their degree of involvement and participation in the reduction of cyber and commercial crime, bribery, messy neighbourhoods, and bystander effects. Participants were also required to discuss if they agreed society is responsible for inviting crime and if young people are contributing to this issue. One group was given the opportunity to disagree with all the statements above.

Jerald Choi Mun Jet, a participant from SMK Methodist (ACS) Klang who represented the focus group on commercial crime said “In order to reduce commercial crime, we as responsible citizens should stop purchasing pirated goods. We should introduce a slogan called “Cheap goods don’t last long” so that people are more aware of quality and durability over time”.

Another participant, Mohammad Owais Qamar from Kolej Gemilang who represented the focus group on bribery said “Awareness on crime begins from home. It should be cultivated in everything that surrounds us such as our upbringing, our parents, our basic principles in life, religion as well as a university culture. We must understand bribery is not our way out of a problem”.