A married Malaysian man who was driven to his wits’ end due to mounting loan shark debts attempted to take his life by consuming rat poison.
Thankfully, the poison wasn’t potent enough to kill him, giving him another opportunity to live his life and recount how it all happened.
Looked for loan sharks online
Speaking at a press conference, the man named Zhu (transliteration), who currently works as a clerk and earns RM3,000 a month, said he searched for illegal loan sharks on Facebook due to work issues and financial hardship.
He eventually borrowed RM2,000 from two groups of loan sharks and was initially able to repay it before borrowing money from another group of loan sharks. However, he began to fall behind on making repayments and the interest rate slowly built up as well.
To cover the debt of one loan shark group, Zhu turned to another group for more loans, causing him to owe about RM15,000 to RM20,000 to five different loan shark groups.
He added that although he borrowed RM1,000 from each group, he’d only be given RM500.
Drank rat poison
As Zhu’s debts continued to inundate him, the loan sharks sent threatening messages in the form of videos showing petrol bombs being thrown to intimidate him and his family.
Driven by despair over his financial situation, Zhu drank rat poison at his home on Monday (Nov 17) but later went to a clinic at his wife’s insistence.
Fortunately, the poison wasn’t potent enough and his life was spared.
‘I still fear for his life’
Zhu’s wife told reporters that she learnt about her husband’s loan shark debts from her mother-in-law.
She admitted that she found it hard to forgive him at first, but after seeing him break down in guilt and anguish, she decided to face the problem together with him.
I didn’t think he would attempt suicide. Although he is now out of immediate danger, I’m still worried that there may be residual toxins in his body.
“I’ve also been unable to sleep these past few nights as I’m worried my husband might suffer from poisoning out of the blue,” she said.
Meanwhile, Huang Yunjie (transliteration), an assistant from Johor Bersatu’s Non-Muslim Wing Public Complaints Bureau, said it receives two cases every week involving illegal loan sharks and online loan scams.
He urged the police to intervene and take stern action against illegal loan sharks and called on the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to have a tighter rein on social media.
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