Mentally and financially drained by his adult daughter’s irresponsibility, a semi-retired construction contractor in Selangor made the difficult decision to sever ties with her.
This comes after he spent the past five years clearing her debts that cost him more than RM160,000, reported China Press.
Speaking at a press conference, the father, simply known as Lee, said his daughter came into contact with loan sharks at the age of 21 due to online gambling activities.
As any parent would do, Lee did his best to help his daughter clear her debts. At one point, things were so dire that he was forced to sell his house in order to repay RM120,000 worth of debts.
Unfortunately, this did little to make Lee’s daughter change her ways as she continued to borrow money from several loan sharks.
Country hopping
Lee revealed that his daughter had graduated from an international high school but was unable to find a job.
When she expressed interest to pursue her studies in Qingdao, China, Lee didn’t hesitate to support her financially over the course of three years.
But Lee now admits that he has no idea whether his daughter had completed her studies during her time in China.
“She returned to Malaysia briefly before Chinese New Year this year, then moved back and forth between China and Malaysia.
“She also told me she wanted to rent a place in Kuala Lumpur with friends, which I agreed to support her based on the condition that she stopped borrowing money from loan sharks.
“However, she didn’t hold up her end of the agreement,” he said.
In addition to China, Lee said his daughter also travelled to the UK, where he sent her RM10,000 via an e-wallet.
‘Not doing this anymore’
Around February of this year, Lee said loan sharks contacted him, leading him to fork out RM40,000 to RM50,000 to settle his daughter’s debts.
But after receiving more calls from loan sharks in recent days, Lee decided to call it quits by disowning his daughter, who’s now 25 years old.
“I’ve helped repay more than RM160,000 in loan shark debts in total, clearing the principal loan amount. I hope that through the media, loan sharks will no longer lend money to her anymore as I will absolutely not help repay on her behalf.
“If any more loan sharks come to collect debts, go find the borrower yourself,” he added.
Selangor DAP Socialist Youth (DAPSY) chief Lee Boon Pin, who was also present, said he had noticed more young people turning to loan sharks for money.
Now that the FIFA World Cup is approaching, he urged the public to avoid illegal moneylenders and not incur debts linked to gambling activities.
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