Malaysia swamped by bogus crises

By Jonathan Kent BBC correspondent in Kuala Lumpur

The Malaysian Government has admitted that its emergency services phone lines have been rendered almost ineffective because of hoax calls.

Malaysians made some 26 million emergency calls last year.

There is growing concern about crime in Malaysia

The astonishing admission that 99.5% of them were made by pranksters came as the national phone company announced changes to its emergency telephone system.

It will be installing call-tracing technology so that regular hoaxers can be prosecuted. The communications minister Leo Moggie said that none were brought to book last year because they could not be identified.

However, what the authorities do know is that almost three-quarters of the bogus calls are made by children.

The government will be targeting its campaign to deter hoaxers at schools.

By doing so, it hopes to halve the amount of time its operators and emergency services waste. Under the new system, all emergency calls will be centralised.

At the moment, the system is inefficient, with operators often struggling to decide which department to connect a caller to.

They are further hampered by language. While most Malaysians can speak the national language, Malay, many more are more fluent in Chinese dialects, Tamil or English.

The action to improve the emergency call service reflects growing concern about crime in Malaysia.

The deputy prime minister announced in July that thousands of extra police will be recruited over the next five years.