Beggar collects RM100 in 3 hours
JOHOR BARU: HE was dressed in shabby clothes and was perceived to be blind.
It was an act that many visitors of the pasar malam in Taman Aman, Senai, fell for and the public showered their generosity on the man, known only as Kong, believed to be in his 30s.
However, both traders and visitors recently found out that they had been conned when they saw staff from the Kulaijaya Welfare Department haul Kong up.
Suddenly, Kong was no longer the blind and desolate beggar everyone thought that he was. Kong even confessed to posing as a visually-impaired beggar only to gain the public's sympathy.
According to Kulaijaya assistant welfare officer Isamuddin Zakaria, con artists like Kong, who lives alone in a house in Senai, could earn up to RM100 working only three hours a day. All he had to do was to sit around and wait for the money to "flow in".
Another man who was recently detained by enforcement officers was 36-year-old Abdul, a Myanmar national.
Isamuddin said Abdul had resorted to begging because his left leg was crippled.
Like Kong, Abdul earned about RM100 "in a day's work".
Abdul, who has been living in the country for a year, said he loved it here as the locals are generally generous people.
Linda Woo, 38, a frequent visitor of the pasar malam here in Taman Aman said: "If the public would stop giving to these beggars, maybe they would stop begging and look for a job."
Woo said she also goes to the pasar malam in Taman Johor Jaya, where her mother-in-law lives, and she often encounters a man begging there.
"Both of his legs have been amputated and although I feel for his plight, I hope someone would offer him a job instead of just giving him money.
"Yes, a lot of people gave him money but to me, that is only encouraging him to beg," said Woo.
"He may not be able to do heavy work but surely there must be something light that he can do," she said.
Meanwhile, Johor Baru Social Welfare Department officer Manayi Ibrahim said enforcement officers have issued warnings to the beggars, most of whom receive RM300 in monthly welfare payments from the government.
"Some of beggars sell tissues but the problem arises when the tissues are not handed out after a customer pays for them. These are some of the common complaints that the department has received.
"Some beggars resort to singing or playing a musical instrument at the night markets but traders complain that they make too much noise.
"It is hard to take action against the beggars as most of them have physical disabilities," he said.
Manayi said that most of the beggars at the pasar malam in urban areas were locals while foreigners, mainly Chinese and Vietnamese nationals, plague pasar malam in rural areas and the town's outskirts.
In raids carried out in Stulang Laut and Taman Perling, both in Johor Baru, officers found a 41-year-old visually-impaired beggar known only as Ari who was ferried to the pasar malam by a syndicate.
Ari said he needed money to buy a Braille machine, and that was why he agreed to work with someone who ferried him to the pasar malam daily on a motorcycle.
Ari, who receives a monthly disability allowance from the Federal Territory Social Welfare Department, said he was only required to pay RM39 to the man who was believed to be a member of a syndicate.
"I just had to pay RM70 to the man apart from the RM39 for hotel accommodation, and I got to keep about RM200 a day," he said.
NST
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