Police, ministry taken to task amid rise in crimes by Ah Longs

The plight of a meat seller in Selayang who recently related how he was brutally attacked by money lenders has raised questions whether enforcement agencies are protecting money lenders, or Ah Longs, in spite of increasing number of criminal acts involving them.

PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng said the police must explain why these money lenders, both illegal and licensed, had been largely free to carry out their activities and could even openly advertise their services in public places.

"Are the police and other enforcement agencies protecting the Ah Longs? We need a clear answer from the Inspector-General of Police. Ah Longs have pasted and distributed tens of thousands of notices nationwide to make public their contact numbers to solicit borrowers who actually become victims," Chua told Harakahdaily, in his response to the plight of 44-year old A. Muthukrishnan as highlighted by The Sun daily.

Muthukrishnan recalled a savage attack on him last year by a group of thugs hired by a money lender who severed his right thumb and cut his ear as punishment for failing to settle a RM50,000 loan which he took in 2008.

Earlier, Muthukrishnan lost his house which he bought at RM200,000 and whose loan he had been paying by installments, after the bank informed him that his house was had been sold to the money lender based on a letter of authorisation.

"Little did I know that the documents and blank papers I had signed would be turned into a letter of authorisation meant for the sale of my house which was under a loan with a bank," he said, admitting that he had signed several blank papers given to him by the money lender.

Chua stressed that there is no difference between legal and illegal money lenders when it comes to perpetrating evil acts on desperate borrowers.

"Now you also read about licenced moneylenders behaving the same – resorting to cheating, violence and dismembering of limbs to recover their loans," he said.

"Such inhumane blood-suckers must not remain unpunished after committing such violence and cruelty. Their growing criminality cannot be condoned any further by Malaysians," he added.

Chua also noted that Ah Longs were rarely charged in court.

"I personally have yet to come across a newspaper report of an Ah Long being charged and convicted," he said, urging the police and the Home ministry to speak up.

"Why are the Home Ministry and its minister Hishammuddin Hussein maintaining such an elegance silence? Who are under the protection of the Home Ministry and Hishammuddin Hussein? Doesn’t Hishammuddin know families are being tormented, living in misery and fear?" asked Chua.

The legalisation of Ah Longs as licensed money lenders, said Chua, was also to blame for the state of affairs.

"I do hope former MCA president Ong Ka Ting can sleep well with this type of violence being perpetrated. After all, it was Ong the Housing and Local Government Minister who licenced the cruel crooks," said Chua, a former Health minister and vice president of the Chinese-only party.

-Harakahdaily