Notes from the underground: A lesson to Penang CM, Sis Eng & Ronnie

The furore over Wee Choo Keong’s allegation that certain gang members had special access to the office of a certain state executive councillor in Selangor is a minor issue that attracts widespread interest among members of the public nevertheless.

The revelation has indeed sparked off a war of words between this PKR MP and his DAP allies in the media. Some highly inappropriate name calling has been flung into the muddied air. It does seem as if these former opposition warriors have yet to learn the meaning of partnership in a state government coalition.

On the other hand, the net news portal The Rock News commented that this news titbit is actually common knowledge among media professionals and Pakatan Rakyat leaders in the Klang Valley.

In the special report, the citizen journalist Ling See How revealed that whenever the state exco went in his official car to attend an official function hosted by a temple or a Chinese guild or association, his car would be preceded by a “mysterious Toyota Harrier” with some mysterious men in it.

So far, Wee has not named the guilty party, though press speculation has it that the object of his wrath is a DAP politician. Whether the media should be so worked up over such a highly speculative story is for the readers to judge. The whiff of a possible scandal has whetted the appetite of news hounds and the public alike for more details.

Most street-wise citizens in Malaysia’s large urban centres should not be too surprised by such reports. The underworld is very much a part of the urban landscape everywhere. They fund and run an alternative economy of very lucrative but illicit businesses such as gambling, prostitution, extortion, loan-sharking, and entertainment outlets worth many billions of ringgit a year.

Operating in the under belly of our society, these organisations are all bulging with muscle and other physical power. They have their own code of conduct and morality, for enforcing internal discipline, and inter-gang co-existence.

The people that the underworld figures fear the most are the police, who monopolise the legitimate use of violence in the state, and against whom the physical power of the underworld is useless.

They solve this problem by attempting to bribe policemen, all the way to the top. They are the ones who have the most intimate information about corruption in the police force. For obvious reasons, they are the least likely to divulge information to anti-corruption agencies.

The enlightened godfathers

The more enlightened godfathers will try to cultivate special relationship with politicians. Politicians and public officials like federal ministers and state excos

State excos can be used as a counter-weight to the police in cases of raids and arrests. They can also be used to shield the licensing of their business cover.

In my two decades of public service, I had gained insight into this secret world of violence and money.

Kuching is my hometown, and I grew up in a tough neighbourhood. Naturally, I knew many of these gangsters when I got elected in 1982. Many of them sought my advice and assistance when they got into trouble.

I did not see them as disgusting people to be looked down always. I knew them to be victims of broken families, poor and ignorant parents, and dropouts from schools that grew too large to give individual attention to their pupils. Many of them fell in with bad company, and made bad choices.

Early in my political tenure, I made up my policy regarding my relationship with these gangs. There were my voters and the citizens of this country, and so they enjoy rights and bear responsibilities like everyone else.

But I was not going to be used by them to promote their criminal or immoral activities. It soon went around town that I was particularly opposed to prostitution, loan-sharking, and drug trafficking. These activities destroy people’s soul, and I will not befriend anyone involved in these crimes.

One day, one of these hard hats dropped into my office, and asked me for a favour. He had been called by the police to give a statement at the police station. He merely wanted me to write a letter to the investigating officer to tell him the interviewee would cooperate with the police.

I was puzzled, until he told me that such a letter will ensure that he would not be beaten up by the police in the interrogation room.

One day, three loan-shark runners came to see me in my office. They had tried to collect their money from a debtor, and the debtor had referred them to me.

I did not know this debtor at all so I was puzzled. Then I knew why. The debtor was unable to service his loan, and was in fear for his life. So I advised these three large gentlemen with tattoos on their body to collect their debt peacefully, without violence, and to give the debtor some breathing space, by rescheduling repayment etc. They nodded respectfully and left.

Unavoidable clashes

Eventually, there were unavoidable clashes between my office and the underworld in the course of my public engagement. At one time, my Bidayuh point man working in the villages against a timber company logging near Kuching was threatened by a group of known thugs who had been hired by the company.

I made a call to the police commissioner, and he promised swift action. Soon after that, a senior police officer was dispatched to the police station nearest to the village. All parties were summoned. The officer told the timber company boss that if any harm should come to my Bidayuh assistant, the boss and the gang would immediately be arrested and charged. Those samseng melted into the jungle.

Soon after that, the Big Brother or Tai Ko of those muscle men paid me a visit in my office.

He turned out to be an old friend from the local Heng Hua fishing village. I pitied him, because his hands and feet had been amputated during a gang fight, and the doctors did not do such a great job patching him up. He said he was in great pain 24 hours a day.

Then he asked me why I should interfere with his Heng Tai (underlings) when they were trying to make a living from the timber company. I had broken their rice bowl, he said nicely.

I said the timber company donated hundreds of thousands of cash to the BN candidate against my party candidate, and so he was our political foe. The Chinese Heng Tai from Kuching should not interfere with our political battle in the upcountry Bidayuh area.

Besides, I reminded him gently that these Bidayuhs had at least one gun and three parangs hanging on the wall of their sitting room. I was trying to save his Heng Tai’s skin!

He accepted my explanation and left amiably. These “brothers” could really understand the logic of turf war!

Godfather’s political analysis

One godfather I particularly liked had retired from the scene and gone into legitimate business, though his reputation in the underworld still remained. We bumped into each other often and chatted over a cup of coffee.

His political analysis of the current political situation is no less penetrating than anyone who had earned a PhD in political science. I asked him how he came to know so much.

He said when he was in jail during those long youthful years, he read up all the books in the jail library.

During elections, half of the underworld members would volunteer to support me out of their political stand, and the other half would choose to support the BN candidate for reasons known best to themselves.

I would make sure that those who supported me did it as voters, who would not hold me beholden to them in anticipation of some return for their favours. They were just voters in my constituency.

That is how I came to know that any urban elected representative in Malaysia worth his salt would have some personal knowledge of the underground activities within his constituency.

But it is crucial for public officials like state excos to maintain a cool distance from these shady characters from the underground.

In the name of good governance, transparency, and accountability, any close association with these figures from the underworld or special access granted to them by public officials would be perceived by a demanding electorate as a sign of compromise of political principle to this the less palatable element of our social fabric.

So now, Wee Choo Keong has thrown down the gauntlet at his Pakatan Rakyat allies in Selangor.

As the Selangor Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim and the DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang have insisted, Wee’s allegations must be investigated, no matter how unspecified they may be, not least just to clear the good names of all the excos in the matter. //

SIM KWANG YANG was MP for Bandar Kuching from 1982 to 1995. He can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com. Mkini