Were it not for irregular immigration, I would have thought that we are not blessed with the existence of a Home Affairs Ministry.

On the rising crime rate, the

ministry has become more conspicuous for its silence than for its

transparency.

The man at the helm at Auberge D’Aragon could at least have tried to defend the government’s dismal record in curbing crime by emulating his Commissioner of Police who at least had the courage to face the press barely 24 hours after I called a press conference at the Labour Party headquarters.

I was told that he was away on other business. Fair enough. But I expected him to do much better on his return than the shallow 10-minute adjournment speech in Parliament which delved deeper into my bickering with the top cop on the double jury dissolution than into the surge in violent crime of today.

With politicians, not all bad news is indeed good news, and in my 10-year long career on the front benches I have seen more of high-ranking Nationalist politicians posing at ribbon-cutting ceremonies and much less of them wherever the going gets tough.

There is no doubt that crime has risen over the last few years. Although we try to give ourselves the impression that we live in a safe country, it is only when we end up as the victims that we realise things are not what they used to be. Of course it would be foolhardy to make believe that we are living in the Bronx, but it would be equally unwise to transmit a false sense of security that all is well.

General crime has increased by nearly 30 per cent since 1998. What is more worrying is the consistent and unabating trend with records broken with monotonous regularity every single year with no sign of reprieve.

And although ordinary theft has decreased by less than one per cent since 2004, it is still 40 per cent higher than it was seven years ago when the Nationalist Party, then in opposition, was howling at the top of its voice at the then prevailing crime rate.

But just in case the government thinks it has managed to check ordinary theft, it has on its hands a record high in the number of violent thefts since 1998, with no fewer than 58 hold-ups committed in 2005 against 50 reported seven years ago and 35 just three years ago.

Moreover, the first three weeks of the New Year have witnessed eight hold-ups – four times greater than the number during the same period last year.

I have been criticised by the government for daring to use the word “crisis” in describing the current state of affairs. But then allow me to register my complete disillusionment because I believe the man who is politically responsible is not doing enough.

There is no more time to yawn at statistics.

The government must quickly review its modus operandi as the writing is on the wall. Does our Home Affairs Minister share the idea that we can do with fewer police stations and policemen on the beat?

Or rather does he think, as I do, that we need a stronger deterrent on our streets, with a more visible police presence?

Is our Home Affairs Minister convinced by the notion that crime is destined to continue rising because our population will continue to grow? Or rather, does he think, as I do, that drug abuse is on the increase and that the habit is pushing youths to commit more serious offences?

Does the Deputy Prime Minister really believe it was a good idea to deprive the Police Corps of the use of 20 new vehicles that were bought early last year but kept under lock and key until Her Majesty inaugurated CHOGM six months later?

Or does he think, as I do, that we

sacrificed our own security for the security of others, first and foremost?

The same Nationalist politicians who laughed off the infamous “hofra”as being nothing but a “hrafa” today have to toil to rein in the deficit and bring order to our finances at the expense of their own electoral popularity. When will they now come around to accepting that unless they take immediate and effective action to guard our internal security from mounting crime, our concerns will turn into a nightmare?

Dr Gavin Gulia LLD, MP, is MLP spokesman on home affairs