Tuesday December 15, 2009

MCA: Track down syndicates that use disfigured beggars

PETALING JAYA: The disgraceful and the inhuman approach of using disfigured people as beggars at night markets by syndicates should be banished from the Malaysian way of life, said MCA NGO Liaison Bureau chairman Datuk Ti Lian Ker.

“The authorities must show their seriousness in tackling the issue by taking immediate action to stamp out these activities. There must be zero tolerance of this sort of crime,” he wrote in his blog yesterday.

Ti said the bureau was concerned with the modus operandi of syndicates, which used disfigured beggars to prey on the sentiments of the people.

The bureau called on the police to take immediate action to stop the activities of the syndicates in line with the Prime Minister’s national key results area placing crime reduction on top of its list, he said.

“The police must not only be pursuing the taxi operators who ferry the beggars but also the syndicate members,” he said.

Ti, who is also an MCA central committee member, said he believes the beggars were maimed so that they could not be identified by their fingerprints.

“There is a possibility that these beggars may not be all foreigners. There is nothing to stop the syndicates from abducting locals, disfiguring them and then forcing them to become beggars,” he added.

Ti congratulated The Star for its reports on Sunday on syndicates getting thousands of ringgit by recruiting disfigured beggars to “work” for them at market places in Malacca.

“We have seen how the authorities have lost in the war against Ah Long, drugs and prostitution as a result of tolerance, attitude and failure to take any action.

“We do not want to see disfigured people being used as beggars to become part of the Malaysian way of life,” he said, adding that organised crime was a serious threat to the peace and security.