KUALA LUMPUR: Two sisters have been left to face ah longs, or illegal moneylenders, after their father left them with a RM72,000 debt when he ran off with his new wife.
The elder sister, a 37-year-old businesswoman who only wanted to be known as Khow, said the ah longs sent thugs to throw red paint on her sibling’s shop in Johor to intimidate them into paying off their father’s debt.
Her sister, she said, was forced to close her shop temporarily for fear for her safety.
“The ah longs have been after us since July to pay off our father’s debt, but we are seldom in contact with him, and that too only when he wants to borrow money from us.
“He and his new wife often borrow money from ah longs… we’ve helped him pay off a RM100,000 debt before,” she told reporters at Wisma MCA.
Khow said she received a message from a WhatsApp business account on Oct 14 demanding RM12,000 from her.
Two days later, she said, an ah long contacted her sister to demand RM60,000 which their stepmother allegedly borrowed.
She said their father and stepmother had fled in early October, adding that the last they spoke with them, her father had said he did not care what happened to them.
“The ah long sent us a copy of our father and stepmother’s marriage certificate as proof that they had taken a loan from them.
“Actually, my sister and I didn’t even know he had gotten married until we saw the marriage certificate,” she said, adding that their stepmother was from Vietnam.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said the sisters had turned to him for help as they could not bear being harried by the ah longs anymore.
He said their father was obviously an irresponsible person as he did not care about what may happen to his daughters.
“These moneylenders also don’t care… they should be harrying the person who took out the loan, not his children,” he said.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
