MALAYSIA
The Star
BY MARTIN VENGADESAN
LIKE many Malaysians, I am absolutely seething with anger at the actions of British paedophile Richard Huckle, who came to Malaysia and spent eight years indulging his depraved sexual fantasies on dozens of our children.
Huckle was able to use both religion and his “status” as a white foreigner to gain the trust of communities eager to accept help in fighting a difficult battle against poverty. What a cruel thing to do.
First of all, let me make it clear that I am not blaming the community. I do think, however, that we need to look at why he was able to gain such access to children and what concrete steps we can take to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.
One thing that needs to be questioned is blind faith. Huckle used religion as an entry point, joining community work and getting close to underprivileged children in the process.
That brought home something to me. Why are we quick to blindly believe in those who manipulate our own religious faith to give themselves authority? While there are many who do genuinely good work in the service of others, we must be aware of wolves in sheep’s clothing who claim to be motivated by sacrifice and benevolence but actually have an evil agenda.
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