TJ Ringkas (penting ajer)

Mengikut Naib Ketua Detektif Kebangsaan, En Ramli Yusuf, terdapat 38 kumpulan samseng jenayah India di Semenanjung Malaysia. Jumlah ahlinya kira-kira 1,5000 orang.

Walaupun kaum India hanya minoriti, mereka merupakan golongan yang paling banyak terlibat dengan jenayah serious (dahsyat).

Sejak 1996, 651 orang India sudah ditangkap dan angka itu sentiasa meningkat setiap tahun.

Kemiskinan dikatakan punca jenayah tersebut. Terdapat 1.6 juta rakyat kaum India di Malaysia yang 22.7 juta penduduk itu.

Ahli politik dan Kesatuan Sosial menyatakan kaum India terlibat dengan jenayah kerana mereka merasa terpinggit dari pembangunan dan pendidikkan, peluang kerja dan perniagaan.

Bertahun lamanya tidak ada sebarang program yang khusus yang dapat membantu mereka. Selain itu kebanyakkan ladang estet getah yang dihuni oleh mereka kekurangan kemudahan disebabkan ia dimilikki oleh pihak swasta - jadi ia tidak layak mendapat bantuan.

Kaum india yang berhijrah ke bandar mendapati mereka tidak diperlukan kerana kurang pendidikkan serta kemahiran. Akhirnya mereka menjadi setinggan.

Kebanyakkan pelajar sekolah India terpaksa membayar wang perlindungan kepada samseng ini, atau mereka sendiri terpaksa menjadi samseng tersebut.

Kebanyakkan kaum India ini berasal dari Tamil Nadu - mereka di bawa ke sini pada waktu penjajahan British utk berkerja di ladang estet getah.

Sunday, October 1 12:23 PM SGT

Anxiety over growing gangsterism in Malaysia's Indian community

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 (AFP) -

Raja, the son of a poor Malaysian Indian rubber tapper, dropped out of school at 16 with no marketable skills other than violence.

For almost 20 years he made his living using threats or fists as a member of a gang specialising in debt-collecting.

Raja (not his real name) quit the Indian underworld three years ago. Now, amid growing alarm in Malaysia at the growth of ethnic Indian gangs, he says he uses his connections to avert gang clashes.

The issue hit the headlines this month when Ramli Yusuff, deputy national chief of detectives, disclosed that there are 38 Indian crime gangs in the Malay peninsula with a total membership of around 1,500.

"Indians are a minority in the country but criminals from the ethnic group are committing the most number of serious crimes compared with other races," he said.

Ramli said 651 Indians had been detained for serious gangland-style offences since the start of 1996, with the numbers increasing every year.

Poverty was the main reason, he said, with many Indian youths who migrated to towns from the country leading a hard life.

Raja, now 39, told AFP how he became a member of a notorious gang in Selangor state.

He said he and a few friends joined a gang while at school to protect themselves from fellow students. After they quit school, debt collectors sought their services.

"They come and tell us -- so and so owes 10,000 ringgit (2,632 dollars). Collect the debt and we give you 2,000 ringgit. So we go and get it without any mercy for the debtor," he said.

Many Indians originally came here from Tamil Nadu during British colonial times to work on rubber plantations.

Ethnic Indians number 1.6 million out of a total population of 22.7 million. They are fairly well represented among the legal community, in medicine and in other professions but community leaders say the majority are still involved in semi-skilled work.

Social workers and politicians say Indians turn to crime because they feel marginalised from government development plans and lack equal education, business and job opportunities.

There is a decades-old affirmative action programme to help Malays catch up with the Chinese but no special help for Indians. Apart from the problems of urbanised Indians, most rubber estates lack basic amenities because they are privately-owned and do not qualify for state-provided rural aid.

S. Samy Vellu, president of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), on Thursday announced a programme to fight crime among Indian youths.

The programme, initially to run for six months, involves visiting troubled schools and squatter settlements to provide counselling.

Samy Vellu said 100,000 ringgit has been allocated to help the party, a member of the ruling coalition, fight social problems.

T. Marimuthu, a former MIC lawmaker, said the surge in crime involving Indian youths worries the government. "We have to arrest this problem. If we do not, we are in trouble," he said.

Marimuthu said gangsterism was not a new problem in Malaysia but was widespread among Indian youths.

Rapid urbanisation was putting pressure on Indians who previously lived in a close-knit family environment on the rubber estates, he said.

Marimuthu said many Indians had been forced to migrate to towns after estates closed. But many ended up in slums due to a lack of education and skills.

"This is the place where many children become delinquents and graduate to become gangsters due to financial and social hardship faced by their parents living in squatter areas," he said.

Marimuthu said Indians feel they have been marginalised by national development projects. In the last three or four decades Malaysia has moved from dependence on rubber and tin to become a major manufacturer.

"I think the government should take the lead to resolve the problem," he said.

Social activist S. Arutchelvan said poverty among Indians was a key factor.

"They turn to crime to achieve their material needs and form gangs because they are alienated following their displacement from the estates," he said.

"They need to group together to protect one another."

Arutchelvan said that in most Indian schools children either pay protection money or belong to gangs. He said police should adopt a more aggressive approach to wipe out ganglords, who were often linked to powerful elements of society.

Ex-gangster Raja said society and the authorities must join forces to eradicate gangsterism at its roots -- in schools.