Senior Assistant Commissioner Rohaimi Md Isa, principal assistant director at Bukit Aman’s Anti-Vice, Gambling and Secret Societies Division said many young gang leaders hailed from urban poor communities. They were driven by a desire to appear bold, violent and dangerous before their peers, he told FMT.
He said “young and dangerous” youths would join ragtag gangs while in school and in time would become full-fledged gangsters.
He spoke of Malay gangs like Double 7 and Tiga Line, Indian gangs like 360, 04 and 21 and Chinese gangs like 24, Ang Beng Hui and Wah Kee.
He said the primary concern of his division was to take hardcore gangsters off the streets, and that this could be achieved through Poca.
He added that those detained under Poca were not people who had been in “just one or two” fights. “These are people with a string of serious offences.”
In 2015, 19 gangsters below the age of 21 were detained under Poca, Last year, the number jumped to 31.
“If you look at some of the recent high profile arrests of gang leaders, you can see that most of them are relatively young,” Rohaimi said.
Recently, a news report in The Star said police had arrested 28 top members of the notorious Gang 24 in a week-long operation. Most of the suspects were in their mid-20s and 30s.
The same report said a businessman believed to be Gang 24’s second in command was shot dead by his bodyguard last December. The businessman was known as Datuk M, a short-form reference to “muda” (young).
Rohaimi said some young people were pushed into joining gangs by socio-economic factors.
“In poor communities,” he said, “youths may feel that life is tough and their living conditions are less than desirable. The gangs exploit this by showing them a life they’ve not experienced, such as by buying them things they cannot afford.
“This is a worldwide trend. You can see that the strength of a gang is dependent on where it is located.”
He said combating gangsterism required the combined efforts of all parties on all levels of society.
He hailed the recent introduction of complaint boxes in schools as an example of such an effort. The complaint boxes enable students to tip off the authorities when their schoolmates become involved in dubious activities.
“This will help us nip gangsterism in the bud,” Rohaimi said. “If a student is starting to get involved in deviant activities, including gangsterism, we can step in and try to set them back on the right path.”