KUALA LUMPUR: Beggars exploiting the kindness of Malaysians have the cheek to complain that they were shortchanged by their “employers”, says Datuk Seri Michael Chong.

The MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head said the foreign beggars came to see him to complain about receiving less than what they had been promised by syndicates that employed them.

“They said they were supposed to get half (of their daily collection), but they were given less,” Chong told The Star.

In its front page story on Monday, The Star reported that cripples and beggars with disfigured faces were “minting” money from local and foreign tourists in Malacca.

They were apparently part of a huge organised gang run by two brothers from China.

Chong said the issue of foreign beggars in the country was nothing new. “And, it is time to stop them.”

He said the beggars told him they could earn up to RM10,000 per month. “They said, ‘Malaysians are very generous, very kind’, so they come here to beg,” he said.

Chong said even fake monks worked with these syndicates, and their modus operandi was to shame those who did not donate.

“If you do not give them anything, they will strike their copper bowls to embarrass you by letting people around you know that you don’t pity a monk,” Chong said.

“You then pay under protest,” he said, adding that he, too, had fallen prey to “this type of extortion”.

Chong said the best way for Malaysians to discourage the syndicates was to ignore the beggars.

-The Star-