Illegal moneylending activities in Malaysia: a study on the effectiveness of law enforcement / Anura Natasya Abdul Razak, Baizura Elliya Baharin and Ct Zubaidah Zainal Abidin

The study of this research is focused on the effectiveness of the enforcement that is carried out by the government to curb the activities of illegal moneylender. Looking into the current situation, the illegal moneylenders have become more merciless and intimidating. A lot of victims have been harassed by the illegal moneylenders. Not only that, there are some that commit suicide due to the fact that they had been mentally tortured by this illegal moneylenders. The issue of illegal moneylenders has more or less caught the attention of the government to overcome this situation. In order to overcome the activities of illegal moneylenders, the Royal Malaysian Police and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government have been working hand in hand. Among the enforcement activities that had been carried out by government include the creation of public awareness; continuous monitoring of the activities carried out by the legal moneylenders and investigates the report made by the public. However, the enforcement done is still not effective enough since the cases of illegal moneylender is still on the rise from 2005 till Jun 2007. The weaknesses and the problems of the enforcement that lead to the ineffectiveness of the enforcement are identified. It was found out that the major problem that leads to the ineffectiveness of the enforcement is the limitation to act under the Moneylenders Act 1951. In addition to that, shortage of the employee and lack of evidence has also contributed to the problem. Among the suggestion to improve the enforcement is by amending the Act and improving the current enforcement.