Runaway boy sold DVDs to repay debt

Adapted from The Star Online 2006.06.23

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/6/22/nation/14610725&sec=nation

Runaway boy sold DVDs to repay debt

By TEH ENG HOCK

JOHOR BARU: It was the need to repay RM300 he borrowed to play games at a cybercafe which made 14-year-old Foo Kiat Yung run away from home.

The S.M. Taman Seri Tebrau student confessed that he often skipped school to play games at a nearby cybercafe.

“I borrowed about RM300 from my classmate to play games. I wanted to settle the debt so I decided to look for a job,” he told a press conference organised by Johor MCA Complaints Bureau here yesterday. On Monday, Tam Yin Peng approached the bureau’s deputy chief Tan Kim Hock and Johor Baru MCA Youth secretary Rodney Soon seeking help to locate her son Kiat Yung, who was reported missing when he failed to return from school on June 13. Kiat Yung said he spent the first two days in Taman Ungku Tun Aminah looking for work but was unsuccessful.

“Then I saw an advertisement in the newspaper looking for DVD sellers which I applied for. Some guy called Ah Meng asked me to go to Kuala Lumpur to work,” he said.

Kiat Yung left Johor Baru and found himself peddling pirated DVDs in SS15, Subang Jaya. He would work 16 hours a day from 8am to midnight. He was provided with accommodation.

“There was no basic salary but I was given a 20% commission. I made an average of RM100 daily,” he said.

On June 17, a policeman arrested him for having 40 pirated discs.

“I was brought to the police station but Ah Meng came to settle the case. I was not charged but the DVDs were seized,” he said.

However, he was told that he would have to bear the losses of the 40 discs which amounted to RM400. Following newspaper reports about the missing boy, members of the public called Tan when they spotted Kiat Yung on Monday night. Police picked him up after being tipped off.

Tam, a sales assistant, then went to the Subang Jaya police station to pick her son up.

COMMENT

After reading this news, so called national news in Malaysia by the popular news media The Star, I am so anger by it because

1. A kid actually contacted a pirated DVD seller on a national newspaper advertisement
2. That kid actually sold pirated DVD in PJ area
3. That kid is caught by police and being ‘settle’ by Ah Meng, what does he mean by settle?

Where is the Malaysia law stand in the way of IP? What kind of police forces we do have in here where they go and catch people who sell pirated DVD and then ‘settle’ with them, without any penalty to those whom actually caught?

Do they do the same with the burglars? Rapist? Murderers? Or even drug smugglers?

My god in my heart tell me that all Malaysian are in big trouble, No matter you are a Malay or Chinese or Indian, we have serious problem !!!

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