JUST a month before his disappearance, social activist Amri Che Mat, was a happy man.

He and his team from the civil society organisation Perlis Hope had just completed building a small house for a senior citizen in Kg Tengah Sungai Padang, Perlis, a state in northern Peninsular Malaysia.

His close friend and volunteer at Perlis Hope, Mohd Aizat Zahid, said Amir was elated that he was able to build the house for someone in need.

“After that, he became more passionate about carrying out more of such projects,” Aizat told The Malaysian Insight.

Amir was not new to doing charitable works or helping the poor. He founded Perlis Hope on October 17, 2015, with the sole aim of helping the poor and needy.

Until today, its members hand out 10kg rice bags every month to 180 families in the state and make house calls in poor neighbourhoods to check on their living conditions and offer other assistance like taking the sick and elderly to the hospital.

Together with about 1,000 volunteers, including Chinese and Indians, Perlis Hope has also worked with other organisations on various community projects in the tiny state of Perlis with a population of 250,000.

Aizat, however, said the state religious authorities were not happy with Perlis Hope, accusing it of spreading Shia teachings.

“People were angry at Baitulmal when our story went viral because it was like they were not doing their job properly,” he said.

“We never held any religious activities. We are not a religious-based group. We just want to help the poor and be a platform for volunteers to give back to society.”

Very little was known about Perlis Hope until Amri’s disappearance. The 43-year-old social activist went missing on November 24, 2016. 

Amri, who was part of the 1997 Mount Everest Malaysian expedition team, had reportedly told his eldest daughter that he was going out that night. 

His wife, Norhayati Ariffin, 43, who lodged a police report the next day, said there were cars and bikes parked near their house when her husband left home. The vehicles had their lights off despite having occupants. 

Amri’s car was found about 20km away from his house, near an abandoned sports school. Norhayati said her husband did not receive any threatening calls and there were no abnormal transactions in his bank accounts.

Amri has four daughters, aged 19, 17, 15 and 10. Aizat said he last saw Amri two days before he went missing.

“He never got involved in any fights, that was just not his style. He only wanted to help others,” said Aizat.

He said Perlis Hope also cooperated with the police, handing over documents related to Amri’s work.

“From day one, we gave police all the information, including details of Perlis Hope’s finances, list of all our volunteers, everything as we have nothing to hide.

“At the moment, we are stopping all our big projects, as we need to focus our attention on finding Amri. But we will continue giving rice to the poor families as we have promised to do so every month.”

Amri was the first of five activists to go have gone missing in the past six months.

About a week after Amri’s disappearance, Joshua Hilmy was reported missing. He is a pastor of Malay descent and a former Muslim. His wife, Ruth, is also believed to be missing.

On February 13, Pastor Raymond Koh was abducted from his silver Honda Accord in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Koh’s case gained attention when an alleged CCTV recording of his abduction went viral.

The latest to go missing is former Petaling Jaya councillor Peter Chong, 54, whose disappearance was reported by his son, Darryl. Chong, the former aide to Subang MP R. Sivarasa, has been missing since April 5.

His last message on Twitter and Facebook was on April 6 where he noted that “GE14 will be about religion #RUU355 – a frightening future for Malaysia”. – April 12, 2017.