Hisham's League of Ordinary People against Crime

Rocky's Bru Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Rocky's Bru

Nur Alert began as the Nurin Alert, which stands for Nationwide Urgent Response Information Network.

Deja Vu. In 2007, several ordinary people got together to set up Citizens for Nurin Alert [Nurin stands for Nationwide Urgent Response Information Network) after the abduction of Nurin Jazlin from near her home in 2007. One of them was Nurin's uncle.

The uncle was not an expert in crime (he worked in a bank) but his insights were damn useful. We roped in other bloggers, parents, NGOs and our proposal was finally adopted by the Government in 2009 as Nur (Nationwide Urgent Response) Alert.

None of the ordinary people who worked on the Nurin Alert was ever invited to sit on Nur Alert or work with the authorities concerned. But that's okay. What's not okay is this: Nur Alert isn't working as well as it should.

Two or three weeks ago, I was told by a journalist that several NGOs were reviewing the Nur Alert. One of their suggestions was to place the child abduction alert system under the Home Ministry.

As fate would have it, I bumped into one of the NGO reps [who wishes not to be identified] at Bangsar Shopping Centre and she told me about the idea.

Then last week, Jalan Sudin and I (we were both on the Nurin Alert effort) were invited to meet up with reps from these NGOs, along with several individuals who have started Facebook campaigns to fight crime, to talk about what we could do to help.

Deja vu. But back then we were on our own. This time around, there's a Minister who's willing to take the initiative to get the concerned ordinary people and fight this together. That's hope ...

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