A FEW days ago, a police station in Kedah was firebombed. According to news reports, it is believed to be gang members’ retaliation against a police crackdown that saw 62 members of their triad arrested. This is the latest in a series of gang-related acts of violence.

Secret societies have been a part of Malaysian history since before Independence. At that point in history, apart from the usual clandestine and illegal businesses run by these triads, they also served highly communal purposes – policing the areas under their charge, arbitrating in commercial disputes as the voice of their respective ethnic groups or clans in government and legislative affairs.

Of late however, these roles have been greatly diminished. To further complicate matters, many of the clandestine businesses such as gambling have either taken legal or online form, forcing gangs to look for alternative – and riskier – sources of funding.

Those are amongst the reasons blamed for an increase in reported gang activities in the past several years. We hear of newer, more violent gangs emerging, breaking away from the arguably less violent, tradition-bound, conventional secret societies of yesteryear.

The situation was so bad that Al-Jazeera even produced a documentary about it in 2015.

Similarly, while gangs in schools are not something new, increasingly open and brazen displays of gang-affiliation are.

But what drives these gangs? What makes them appealing, despite being illegal, and the general bad rep associated by being in one?

Like most other criminal activities, gangs are most commonly linked to socio-economic conditions. Gangs are most often active in areas with high concentrations of urban poor and lower income working class families. Recruitment of school-going youngsters in these areas are easier – there’s the pull factor from money and small luxuries accorded with joining a gang, and cash-strapped working parents have little time to mind their kids.

Once gang culture gains a foothold in a school, it compounds the problem by creating an ecosystem to support itself, parasitically, consuming and decaying everything around it.

These kids not only risk messing up their own futures, but make concentrating in school difficult for the rest of the students. Vandalism goes up, the cost of maintaining the school increases. The performance of the school then drops, the school slowly, but eventually gets sidelined by the Education Department, the school intake numbers go down, and the cycle continues, worsening with every iteration.

Surviving school in itself then becomes an achievement worthy of a standing ovation, without really learning anything in the process.

These failed students then go on to join the gang proper and graduate from gang fights and extortion into hit jobs and drug dealing.

Plenty of effort has gone into tackling the gang problem and many crackdowns have occurred in schools and on the outside. One such example is Ops Cantas, which saw hundreds of arrests of gang leaders nationwide.

While these crackdowns are effective in bringing gang activity levels down, a more holistic approach is needed if the intention is to eliminate this problem. First of all, politicians need to have, and be seen to have, genuine political will to eradicate this problem. There is no point in arresting and applying restricted residence to underworld figures only to be seen with them at official functions. 

Neither is charging and prosecuting them while still continually nominating their leaders for state awards. With every gang or corruption crackdown these days, there will usually be a couple of Datuks in the mix, sometimes with even a Tan Sri thrown in. It is hard to imagine why these criminals have their titles retained, and harder to imagine these honorifics used in prison.

Since a lot of the problem starts at school, more emphasis should be focussed there, including by the police. Teachers need to be empowered with more than a few visits a year by the local police to nip the problem in the bud. Perhaps moving the problematic kids out to a distant school would an option.

Apart from the PTA, former students’ and teachers’ associations can help with funding and mentoring programmes.

Gangsterism may seem like a less interesting topic to talk about in the national political discourse these days, but it shouldn’t be. – July 25, 2017.

* Emmanuel Joseph firmly believes that Klang is the best place on Earth, and that motivated people can do far more good than any leader with motive.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.