‘True crime’ enthusiasts peering through the bars of the Malaysian penal system may feel ‘robbed’ of a sense of fanboy/girl exhilaration. Staring back at them are puny hordes of small-timers and bunglers whose misdeeds (however grave) are yawn-inducingly pedestrian, microscopic in scale, and utterly lacking in cinematic or literary potential. None of today’s wicked wannabes have a clue about hardcore criminals, and can’t hold a candle (let alone a knife) to the blood-spattered criminal aristocrats of the recent past. Now THOSE guys broke laws like a boss. They shot, stabbed and strangled their way into Malaysian history, and though they stole or extorted a great deal, our criminal folklore is all the richer because of them.
R Kalimuthu, aka ‘Bentong Kali’
1961 – 1993
- Born and raised in Bentong, Pahang, Kali was a hot-tempered, academics-allergic kid who was going nowhere fast. At 14, he dropped out of school and promptly ‘enrolled’ in a malicious triad named ‘Gang 04’, which taught him the 3 ‘Rs’ of scholarship: Robbery, Recreational drug smuggling and Ruthlessness.
- Kali was apparently a bit of a slow learner though, because he was arrested by the police within months. He spent the rest of his teenage years in prison, emerging from jail when he was almost 20. Wary of the tired cliché of the ‘reformed convict’ who ‘turns over a new leaf’ upon release, Kali determinedly re-connected with members of Gang 04 and took on ‘outstation’ assignments, which saw him swanning and wreaking havoc across the Peninsula.
- In 1985, delinquent Kali was arrested once again – this time under the Emergency Ordinance. He was imprisoned in what was then known as the ‘Alcatraz of Malaysia’ – the maximum security Jerejak Island Prison in Penang (it was closed down in 1993). In 1987, he was released and transferred to Kuantan, Pahang, where he was placed under house arrest and not allowed to leave the state. He was traced again in Gopeng, Perak in 1990 and charged with drug trafficking, but incredibly, was released due to a ‘lack of evidence’.
- It was while he was on the down-low that Kali is thought to have acquired two of his signature possessions: a German-made semi-automatic Sig Sauer P226 pistol, which he would use in all his proceeding gun battles and murders; and an art gallery of tattoos that would cover his body, including one on his hand that said “Born to die”.
- In 1991, Kali re-emerged in the centre of it all – which in Malaysia simply means ho-hum Segambut, Sungei Way and Brickfields in the Klang Valley. He joined a group of mobsters known as ‘Gang 08’, which specialised in heroin trafficking and extortion, partly as a way of networking and learning the lay of the land.
- A few months later, Kali left Gang 08 and founded his own law-averse posse known as ‘Gang 04 of Jalan Klang Lama’. This marked the beginning of Kali’s reign of terror in KL.
- While brazenly carrying out racketeering, drug smuggling and other questionable activities across the capital, Kali would fly into sudden rages and kill simply for the sake of killing – perhaps even for kicks. He had officially crossed into homicidal sociopath territory, crashing the wedding party of a relative, causing a commotion, and shooting four guests to death; gunning down a homeowner who was upset that Kali was urinating at his front gate; and executing a mamak stall owner for no discernible reason. By the end of 1992, Kali was personally implicated in at least 17 murders.
- By 1993, the police had had enough and launched ‘Ops Buncit’ to snuff Kali and Co out. A mini-army of 200 police personnel in three states was mobilised to bring him down, a bounty of RM100,000 was placed on his head, and “Wanted” posters of Kali were plastered across the Peninsula and southern Thailand. Kali was, however, so unconcerned that at the height of the manhunt, he placed a direct call to Dato’ Zaman Khan, the task force chief himself, and dared Zaman to come get him.
- In mid-1993, police eventually tracked Kali down – not to a middle-of-nowhere jungle hideout, but to a pretty house in upscale(ish) Medan Damansara. While clueless Kali did ‘Kali’ things inside, the RMP pulled out all the stops and encircled the house with snipers, a bomb squad, and a Special Operations Command team of elite police officers from Bukit Aman. A shootout commenced and all inside were killed, except for Kali – but when he tried to escape from the second-floor balcony, it was lights out, courtesy of a sniper. Kali was 32 years old.
Ahmad Mohd Arshad, aka ‘Mat Komando’
1965 – 2002
- Much of Mat’s personal life is shrouded in mystery. He is thought to have been born and raised in Yan, Kedah. It is not known if he completed his schooling, but in his late teens, he enlisted in the army and served with them for several years.
- Mat gained serious swag when, after earning his stripes, he was recruited as a member of an elite commando unit of the Malaysian army where he trained for two years before dropping out for reasons unknown.
- Mat got married and fathered a child (who was reportedly hearing impaired). To support his family, he did a string of jobs – driving lorries, buses and taxis. But the driving was mundane and before long, Mat began to dream of a job that would satisfy both his love for living dangerously and his desire for big bucks.
- In between taxi passengers, Mat hooked up with other malcontents – some former military dropouts – and hatched an ambitious scheme. Before long, he had formed his military-style ‘Gang 13’, and after acquiring illegal arms, the stage was set for Mat Komando to strike.
- The gang started modestly by raiding the remote offices of palm oil plantations in Kedah and seizing their sizable cash caches. But after their engines were revved, they swung into high gear and carried out highly-orchestrated, military-style operations on banks, pawnshops, currency exchange outlets, post offices and individuals. Their mobility was astounding – within a year, they had struck in seven different states, from Perlis to Johor, Negeri Sembilan to Kelantan. Between 2001 and 2002, Mat had masterminded 52 armed robberies and netted RM2.5 million in cash. And as a testament to their daring, none of the gang bothered to wear masks to hide their identities in any way while carrying out their heists.
- With his rap sheet now covered with such crimes as armed assault, high-scale robbery and illegal possession of firearms, Mat became Malaysia’s most wanted man. In mid-2001, the authorities launched ‘Ops Api Sawi’ and their manhunt for Mat and his gang commenced.
- But if the authorities had expected Ops Api Sawi to be a swift operation, they were in for a surprise – the pursuit would last 255 days, the longest in Malaysian history. (They were, after all, hunting a commando.) At the start of the campaign, the police traced Mat to a resort in Pedu Lake, Kedah, where he had apparently checked in for a breather with friends and family. After surrounding the party’s chalet, a fierce gun battle broke out and several of Mat’s men were killed – but he himself escaped unharmed into the surrounding jungle. A crack army unit, a police air unit, sniffer dogs and a squad of legendary Senoi Praaq trackers followed in pursuit, but after 10 days of searching, they called it quits. Nevertheless, the police managed to score against the rest of Gang 13, apprehending and killing almost all of them.
- Six months later, Mat was again detected, this time in Gemas, Negeri Sembilan, where he was meeting with Shukri Husain, a remaining Gang 13 member who was in hiding. Both managed to escape the police-surrounded premises in a hail of bullets. But later, Mat beat Shukri up, suspecting him of having ratted him out. Before he could be executed by Mat, Shukri escaped and made a beeline for the police, and then he really did spill the beans.
- The following month, thanks to Shukri, police trailed Mat to a hut in a remote Felcra village in Pendang, Kedah where a VAT69 anti-terror unit, supported by paramilitary police, stormed Mat’s hideout – who retaliated with bullets from his Colt .45 and S&W .22 revolver. In spite of his Rambo bravura, Mat Komando was shot to death in the encounter. He was 37 years old.