Malaysian Indian gangs on prowl

KUALA LUMPUR, DEC. 14. Malaysian Indians make up just about seven per cent of the Malaysian population, but contribute to 55 per cent of the country's crime. It is common place for Malaysian Indians, who first came to the region as plantation labour, to be involved in murders and robberies. Nearly 80 per cent of all Malaysian Indians are Tamil speakers.

The problem has become so severe that the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) leader and Works Minister, Mr. S. Samy Vellu, says that many of his constituents have come to be known as the ``bad boys''. According to the website, Indian-Malaysian Online, 38 Indian gangs with a membership of 1,500 persons are involved in extortion, drug pushing and robbery. ``It is very serious. The problem has to be addressed,'' Mr. Vellu, who has been a Minister in the Malaysian Cabinet since 1979, said. Mr. Velu's MIC, launched a new initiative to bring the ``bad boys'' back into society. ``We are trying to do a reach-out programme for 300,000 youth who are mostly secondary and high school educated.

The Malaysian Government had allocated a sum of $ 20 million for an MIC affiliate to carry out this programme over the next five years.''

Dr. M. Nadarajah, who teaches sociology at Stamford College, said, ``The Indians here are a poor minority community and poverty has become an inter-generational problem, poverty reproducing poverty...as a result of development in Malaysia, they have been pushed from rural to urban poverty, from plantation worker to factory hand, from living in an estate environment to living in a squatter area.''

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Jamaat to campaign for Musharraf exit
Next     : Europeans foresee closer ties with U.S.