By CHONG CHEE KIN

HAVE we failed the young?

In recent weeks, unrelenting police operations against loan sharks have seen a disturbing trend of teenagers - both boys and girls - being arrested.

The youths were suspected of harassing debtors, scribbling on and defacing walls to pressure them into paying up.

The penalties are severe. A first-time offender may be fined up to $40,000 or jailed the maximum three years, or both.

Males above 16 may also be caned.

Criminals' exploiting the young to do their dirty work is hardly new, here and elsewhere.

One need not look farther than 2001, when a vengeful Anthony Ler lured a 15-year-old boy with friendship and money to get him to kill his former wife.

About six years ago, teenagers setting up makeshift tables in the heartland to peddle pirated and pornographic DVDs and VCDs were not an uncommon sight.

Even earlier, in the 1980s and 90s, syndicates similarly used youths to front fly-by-night operations selling pirated software in housing estates and shopping centres.

In the United States, Mexican drug cartels tempt teenagers with promises of cash and the good life to kill for them.

Here, loan-sharking syndicates are getting the young to harass debtors who are slow on repayment.

It's particularly worrying when those as young as 12 - an age when they should be in school rather than running around in housing estates harassing debtors - are being caught for such activities.

What makes the situation even more dire is that the young suspects are not just defacing walls and doors by scribbling the ubiquitous "O$P$" to pressure debtors into making good on their loans.

Initial police investigations showed that some of the teenagers were suspected of setting fires outside the flats as an intimidation tactic. This could all too easily get out of hand and spiral into more serious offences, like arson and culpable homicide, should the fires rage out of control.

Let's not kid ourselves by thinking that youths are more difficult to control these days or lament that they are more impetuous or violent, compared to years gone by.

Or that they are motivated by a misplaced sense of loyalty to their older "friends".

The motivation, to a large extent, is greed. Pure and simple.

A source told me that the youths are merely doing the legwork for the syndicates and are unaware of the trouble they are getting themselves into.

"Harassing debtors is work of the lowest rung which no one wants to do because it is all too easy to get caught. This is why the syndicates get youths to do it. Some do it to prove their manhood, that they are man enough to do it. But many others do it because it's a way to make a quick buck," he said.

There is only so much law enforcers can do. Beyond deterrence and punishment, much needs to be done to change the mindset of the young that they would get away with acts of harassment, or, worse, that what they are doing is not a serious offence.

myp@sph.com.sg

For more my paper stories click here.