Rashid is 17, a scrawny teenager who, at about 1.5m tall, is
small for his height.
Rizal, on the other hand, is big for a 16-year-old. He's muscular
and, at more than 1.8m tall, looks intimidating.
Both know what it means to get in trouble.
An angry tattoo on Rashid's right arm gives you a clue: It
identifies him and the gang he wanted to belong to - '21'.
Rashid, despite mixing with gang members, never formally joined
one.
Rizal did and is a battle-hardened former gangster.
Both share similar stories: too-busy parents, a bored childhood and
gang activities which included brutal fights.
Rizal and Rashid are now working to right their life. (See report
on page4.)
They asked that their real identity be kept secret for fear of
reprisals.
There is no time-off from being a gangster. They had to fight their
way out and the last thing they want is to be accused of snitching
on their respective gangs.
BRUTAL
Their stories are not unique.
They are part of a growing problem here. Bored teenagers who get
involved with notorious street corner gangs.
Gang members who have been charged with everything, from theft to
murder.
One of the most brutal attacks took place in 2000. Then, a Malay
youth was attacked by another group and chased through town.
He was stabbed repeatedly and finally collapsed outside the old
Mandarin Hotel in town.
His crime? He was at the wrong place, at the wrong time.
A worrying trend is emerging, said Malay community leaders. A
disproportionate number of teen gangsters are Malays.
Some have even seemingly taken over from predominantly Chinese
groups.
Recently, these teenage gangsters have taken to posting their
anthems on video-sharing sites.
To prove their 'mettle', they even post videos of gang members
savagely beating up rivals. Like how netizens, claiming to be from
the Malay 'Omega' gang, posted a video of a brutal beating at a
basketball court here.
Malay youths are also known to have joined the mostly-Chinese '369'
gang.
On one posting on a popular video-sharing website, a netizen turned
the numerals 'salakau' (369 in Hokkien) into Arabic-style
writing.
The police said they are constantly vigilant, but are confident the
situation is under control.
The community's concerns pan out. The Subordinate Courts conducted
a study in 1998.
Though Malays represent about 15per cent of the population, the
study found that 34 per cent of the juvenile rioters here were
Malay.
The study also showed that more Malays joined youth gangs, at 24
per cent, compared to the national population.
They may be boys but they are no less brutal.
In one attack in 2001, a group of Malay youths attacked two Malay
teenagers at Boat Quay. One of the victims died the next day.
Last month, there was a series of reported attacks around town.
Most involved Malay youths.
Rizal and Rashid said they don't have numbers, but they know there
are many others like them.
The two met each other while receiving help from the
community.
Rizal was bored and, with little money to entertain himself, took
to mixing with gangs and peddling illegal VCDs. The money bought
him cigarettes and sometimes, drinks.
But he was still bored.
His story started when he was 13 or 14 and still in school.
Friends urged him to join the '24' group, a predominantly-Chinese
gang. His friends were also gang members.
'They told me that I could make good money when I joined the gang
and I would also be protected,' he said.
DEFIANT
Rizal had little supervision. His dad, now in his 50s, was a taxi
driver who was on the road for long hours.
Though his mother was a housewife, she had no idea about his
activities. An older sister, now 28, was busy with her own
life.
Rizal said: 'I told my parents that I wanted to stop schooling and
they tried to convince me to go back to school. But I did not want
to listen to them and they finally gave up trying.
'My parents were concerned for me, but I was defiant and did not
want to listen to them.'
Rizal graduated from hanging out at street corners to dropping out
of school within months of joining the gang.
Soon, he became involved in fights, often scouting shopping centres
for the thrill of beating up rivals.
'We would go to the carparks at shopping malls to fight. We would
use our fists or hockey sticks as weapons,' he said.
Rizal said his worst injury was when his knuckles got scarred in a
fight with another gang member.
'The gang member brought along a beer bottle, and I smashed it to
pieces and scarred my hand. I punched him and he got a broken
nose,' he said.
When his parents saw his bleeding knuckles, he admitted he had been
involved in a fight. When he ignored their scolding, they stopped
asking.
But a fight in 2005 woke him up.
While walking with a friend in Jurong, a rival gang spotted and
chased them with parangs.
Rizal escaped unscathed, but said his friend lost an arm when it
was dismembered at the elbow.
By then, Rizal was in too deep and too afraid to leave.
Then 18 months back, a gang member rushed to his home to enlist his
help for a fight.
'When my mother learnt that I was involved in gangs, she was
shocked and ashamed. I decided to tell her everything and leave the
gang.
'When I told the gang leader that I wanted to leave, he said I
could light a cigarette or fight one of the gang members
man-to-man, or run down from the 12th storey to the ground floor of
a block of flats and fight off the gang members at every storey as
I did so.
'After the fight, I was allowed to leave the gang,' he said.
Like Rizal, Rashid wanted to be a gang member. His friends were in
the '21' gang and he got a tattoo done to identify himself with the
gang.
He thought it was 'cool', he said.
PROTECT YOUR TURF
The Subordinate Courts drew parallels between gangs here and the
US. There were many similarities, though gangs there often fought
for money for their illegal activities, not a common feature among
gangs here, said the study.
But gangs here and in US often fought battles over territory.
Rashid said as much. You had to protect your turf, sometimes even
from people in the same gang.
Groups splintered and rivals often fought around shopping centres
they called their turf.
Rashid, despite mixing with gang members, never really joined them.
Yet when he wanted to leave, he too was beaten up. He stopped
mixing with them when a friend had a close call.
Today, Rizal and Rashid are trying to steer clear of the
gangs.
They are now hitting the books and trying to go back to school.
Community leaders have been quick to acknowledge the problem and
intervene.
Rizal and Rashid are lucky. They're still alive and are now
fighting to reclaim their youth.
Not Mohamad Sadik Senin. He died after a clash with a rival gang at
Clarke Quay in 2000. He had gone to the wrong pub.
He was only 19.
