Today’s Star paper talked about how the Underworld gang is now recruiting members especially teenagers through Facebook. This is quite an alarming story for parents with teenagers, since nearly all of these kids are on Facebook. Most of the time, these gangs entice kids with the promise of protection, when they need help against someone who’s bugging them etc. Kids being kids might find this kind of connection to a gang dangerously exhilarating. Well, not so. I am so reminded by a movie I watched, called Sin Nombre.
In this movie, a teenage boy is trying to initiate an even younger boy, like maybe only 10 years old, into his gang. In order to be part of the brotherhood, the first thing that the young boy had to do, is to kill a captured triad member of an enemy gang. Although scared, the young boy did it anyways. After doing it, he thought he will get lifetime protection from the brotherhood of this huge gang. However, one day, the boss of the gang saw that this teenage boy has a pretty girlfriend, but the teenage boy lied to the gang boss that they are just friends. Knowing that this is not true, the boss ordered that these two boys be beaten up violently, while he took the girl away and attempts to rape her. In the midst of the struggle, the girl fell and knocked her head and died. The boss just told the teenage boy to find another girl, acting like he did him a favour. Of course, the teenage boy was so mad about this, but just kept it to himself. Later on, the boss took this teenage boy and his younger compatriot on a ‘mission’. The mission was to steal from a group of countrymen trying to illegal move to US on the train. While they were taking money from the passengers, the sex crazed gang boss saw a pretty teenager girl and tries to rape her in front of her uncle and father. The teenage boy feeling all angry about what he did earlier to his girl friend, decided upon himself to slash the head off the boss and kick him off the train. He also ordered for his younger friend to leave the train. Instead of vowing allegiance to the teenage boy for being the one that brought him into the gang, the younger boy went back the the brotherhood and reported the incident to them. On seeing that the younger boy did not kill the teenage boy on the spot, the gang members accused the younger boy of supporting him. To protect himself, the younger boy vowed to chase down and kill this teenage boy. Basically in the end, the younger boy managed to track him down, and really shot him and killed him on the spot.
The moral of me telling this story is, being in a triad is not going to get yourself any protection. It is only going to get yourself and people you love in trouble. In this case, the teenage boy and his girlfriend died. The younger boy, being only ten, has already murdered 2 persons. Can you imagine what that does to his brain, how traumatizing that may be and what a monster he would become as he grew older? Plus, who’s to say the brotherhood won’t frame him again and kill him as well whenever he does something against their will. Nobody in a gang is protected, nobody in the gang will protect you but only themselves. If you have a pretty girlfriend, they won’t admire her from far, they will take her from you. In Kajang itself I have actually seen two gangs fight each other in the streets with long swords. I’m sure many suffered a casualty that night, but can your brotherhood bring you back to life? Think carefully before joining a triad, once you get it, there’s no getting out. You will have basically traded your life in for the sake of a baseless ‘protection’.