MALAYSIA: A teenage boy in Malaysia found himself saddled with almost S$4,000 worth of debt in his efforts to please his girlfriend, who has an appetite for ikan siakap tiga rasa, a popular fried fish dish in sweet, sour, and spicy sauce.
The 15-year-old boy from Selangor got into trouble with illegal moneylenders or “ah longs”, according to the local news site Daily Kosmo.
The report added that he resorted to borrowing money from loan sharks as he was ashamed to ask his parents. Having seen an advertisement for ah longs on TikTok, he ended up owing 12 of them money.
From an initial loan of RM300 (S$90), his debts are likely to have continued to accumulate interest until they reached a whopping RM13,000 (S$3,900), according to Sin Chew Daily Malaysia.
Young people are often unaware of the devious habits of such loan sharks. The accumulated debts caused the teen to even drop out of school.
He has since turned to a group that helps those victimized by loan sharks, Darul Muttaqin.
The manager of the Fardu Ain and Quran Studies Centre of Darul Muttaqin, Fariz Izhar Adrus, has told the boy’s parents of his predicament, and the group is now assisting the teen.
The group has helped with 3,700 loan shark cases among Malaysians from the ages of 15 to 60 and receives 50 cases daily.
Eighty per cent—four out of five cases—involve women. The group was quoted as saying that some women are even forced to give up their newborn babies as a condition for paying interest or debts they owe to loan sharks.
According to Datuk Mohd Zaki Zainol, the general manager of DM, “Once the hospital procedures are completed, the baby is handed over, and the couple has no idea where the child ends up.”
Illegal moneylenders in Malaysia are known to resort to unethical, sometimes even violent means, to get the people who borrowed money to pay up.
Even though enforcement issues have been stepped up over the years, the practice has continued and ah longs have persisted with their illegal activities.
In May, a woman in Malaysia took the unusual step of announcing in a newspaper that she was disowning her son, to whom she had given more than S$28,700 to pay his debts.
Loansharks from whom her son had borrowed more money have been harassing her and her daughters. /TISG
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