COMMENT I am a regular volunteer at one of the few homeless charities that operate in the Klang Valley. Having been doing this regularly for almost three years now, I have always heard of frequent raids by the authorities targeting the homeless in an effort to rid the city of them and also weed out what they deem to be criminal elements within this group of people.

Having not seen them myself always gave me an abstract idea of how it is like. What one does not see tends to stay out of one’s mind. That was the case for me until the events of last Friday night rudely awakened me to the ugly truth.

I witnessed a well-coordinated raid on the homeless sleeping along the pavements of the inner streets behind Jalan Tun Perak, Kuala Lumpur, the stretch of pavement in front of Menara Maybank and other areas around that vicinity.

Teams of men poured out of vehicles and darted off towards the people sleeping and started apprehending them. Some made a run for it of course, but they were caught up with and dragged on to waiting vehicles to be processed.

They were treated like animals being led to slaughter, a shameful and pathetic sight. The actions of the authorities that night was clearly meant to surprise and intimidate these defenseless people who were mostly asleep.

Many of us live in the suburbs, away from the inner city and we live a somewhat protected existence. We are blissfully unaware that in our very own world class city, there are people roughing it out on the streets for a variety of reasons.

Many are employed and yet they cannot afford to pay rent, many are mentally ill and are not getting the help they ought to get, many are sick with HIV/AIDS and have been rejected by their families and society.

Many of them sleep it rough accompanied by the putrid smell of urine, feces and rats sniffing around them as they sleep away their troubles every night. This, I am convinced is not a choice any human being will make voluntarily to expose oneself to such indignities, unless of course under extreme circumstances.

Sickening to liken them to strays

The homeless are not criminals; they are victims of very unfortunate circumstances and as such treating them as criminals will not eradicate our streets of them.

Many blame the rise in soup kitchens as a source of the problem, the impression given is that people move to the city because of all the free food being dished out to them. An anonymous Malaysian who was interviewed for a recent newspaper article on this issue likened them to stray dogs, apparently if we just stopped feeding them they will go away.

Sadly it is not as simple as that, and where has our humanity gone? Likening human beings to strays is nothing short of revolting and sick.

As long as there are human beings in need, it’s our responsibility to help them and look out for them. We are indeed very fortunate to have a roof on our heads, an internet connection and are reading this article from the comfort of our homes, offices or a super expensive Galaxy S3.

We take these comforts for granted, but believe me, after seeing some of the things I have seen on the streets of KL, we are in many ways truly blessed.

The authorities’ continued clampdown on the homeless will not solve the problem. One can lock them up for a couple of days, but they will ultimately end up on the streets again. We need a holistic solution to the situation, until then the soup kitchens will continue hitting the streets and continue feeding the homeless.

Instead of condemning those who help, those in power should instead come down to the ground and see for themselves the realities that affect many in the homeless community. For every problem there will be a solution, but dragging people like animals into a waiting truck does not solve this particular problem.

The next time you drive into KL or any place for that matter and notice someone sleeping rough, consider this; that person is someone’s child and has a story. Everyone has a story, and a set of circumstances which put him or her where he or she is today.

That same rule applies to all of us without exception whether we realize it or not, the difference is that we were lucky, they weren’t.

Nelson Mandela once remarked that a country can truly be judged by the way it treats its lowest citizens. By that comparison Malaysia still has a very long way to go.

AZEEM AMBALAM is a regular volunteer at Pertiwi Soup Kitchen, and will continue to do so. The article was first published on his blog ‘The rantings of a Bolelander’ in February 2013, and is republished here with permission.