from time to time, people will bring out issues which shows how being in singapore, being singaporeans, we are losing out. freedom of speech, high pressure education system, high cost of living etc. however i must say this is the first time i've seen the issue of security/crime rates been brought up.
lets put it this way, for every one case of "police not doing their job" an average singaporean can relate to, the average new yorker or londoner can probably think of 10 others.
i feel that we're really picking on the bones a little here.
i think this is really give and take. can the police here increase their already pretty high level of efficiency? sure they can. but at wat cost? when they do, some other people will write in to the ST forum pages complaining about the police being overly paranoid, being over zealous. then the country itself will put on a few more layers to our already thick reputation of being sterile, over disiplined, regimental, etc etc.
the point here is achieving a balance. can a country ever experience zero crime? zero cases of break ins, etc? well... if i remember correctly, saddam hussein's iraq got pretty close to that. its easy really. u dare commit a crime? u get shot in the head. get ur limbs chopped off, if u're lucky. no need for expensive lawyers. simple as that. the law abiding citizens of iraq seemed to understand the simple rules pretty well.
the iraq today? on their way to "democracy", "liberal life", "freedom of speech". and what do u see? is there a day in cnn without any report of so and so dying, being mugged, kidnapped, raped, etc?
go figure that out.