07/04/2026

TUESDAY | APR 7, 2026

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Padan muka , Mat Rompak L ET us gather, friends, to mourn a dying profession. Not with solemnity – absolutely not – but with the packet containing exactly one sen because someone’s nephew thought he was being funny. You drove all the way from your lair for this? The surging fuel prices is not helping too. R I N A T E D M A K

wondering why nobody is carrying a purse anymore. The cybercriminals, to their credit, at least had the sense to pivot. They put on a polo shirt, rented a fake office somewhere in Kuala Lumpur, learned to say “ pelaburan untung besar ” with a straight face and moved their operations entirely online. Deeply reprehensible, obviously, but adaptive. They read the market, they upskilled and they are the e-hailing drivers of crime – they saw which way the wind was blowing and downloaded the relevant app. You, Mat Rompak , did not even update your operating system. So here lies the snatch thief industry – felled not by the police, not by social reform and not by a single impassioned speech in the Dewan Rakyat. But felled by Bank Negara Malaysia, a QR code standard and the collective decision of thirty-odd million Malaysians to stop carrying cash because it is slightly more convenient not to. No task force, no budget allocation and no minister cutting a ribbon in front of a banner that says: Pelan Strategik Menangani Ragut 2025. Just vibes. Just DuitNow. The snatch thief built his career on your bulging purse. You replaced it with a phone. He grabbed the phone. The phone has face ID. Checkmate, bro. Azura Abas is the executive editor of theSun. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

more than your haul. You are running a negative-margin criminal enterprise. Your business model has the structural integrity of a pasar malam tent in a thunderstorm – and everybody could see it coming except you. Here is the bit that should really sting, delivered with love and a firm lempang across the back of the head: the pakcik jual keropok lekor in Kelantan has adapted to the digital economy faster than you. By May 2025, rural wet-market stalls across Perak and Kelantan were already accepting contactless payments. The man selling fish crackers from a wooden cart on a kampung road has a DuitNow QR code laminated in a plastic sleeve – laminated with a sleeve. He planned ahead, he evolved. You did not. He is, by any reasonable measure, a better businessman than you, and he has never once ridden a kapchai with criminal intent. Sit with that. Meanwhile, Malaysia’s digital payment market hit an estimated US$291.79 billion (RM1.18 trillion) so far this year – a number so large it has become essentially meaningless, like trying to picture how many teh tariks that represents. The economy has gone digital, the rakyat has gone digital, even your grandmother has gone digital after your cousin installed TnG on her phone, and she has since been happily paying for kuih at the pasar malam by waving her phone like she is casting a spell. Everyone moved forward. You stayed on the kapchai , circling a car park in Chow Kit,

particular Malaysian joy reserved for watching someone kena batang hidung sendiri . Because that is precisely what has happened to the snatch thief community, and frankly, padan muka . Picture the golden era: early 2000s. Our hero – let us call him Mat Rompak – cruises Jalan Masjid India on a kapchai with a helmet two sizes too small, eyes scanning like a CCTV camera. Aunty walks by with a handbag. Fat wallet inside – physical, tangible, lucrative. Mat Rompak guns the engine, snatches the bag and disappears into traffic and later counts his RM300 bounty over a teh tarik – feeling, one imagines, rather pleased with himself. That world is gone, Mat Rompak . Gone. And Touch ‘n Go killed it. Statistics are saying e-wallet usage in Malaysia jumped 14% last year, with the 18-to-34 age group – your primary victims, bless them – now using digital wallets for 75% of their food purchases and 65% of retail transactions. Your target demographic has essentially demonetised themselves. They walk around with RM7 in cash, a cracked screen handphone and the audacity of someone who has never once needed an ATM. You snatch that bag now and what do you find? A lip balm, a photocopy of an IC from 2019, three Shopee return labels, a duit raya

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Nearly three in five Malaysians are now using digital payments (Antom), which means the modern Malaysian handbag is essentially a decorative object – a museum exhibit of a time when humans carried actual money on their actual person. Mat Rompak has been robbing “museums”. He deserves a lempang , frankly, just for not reading the room sooner. And it is not merely the emptiness of the wallets that should concern him; it is the paper trail. Cash was the perfect crime accessory – silent, untraceable and morally indifferent. You could spend stolen ringgit on nasi kandar and nobody would ever know. Digital money, however, is an absolute gossip. Every electronic payment transaction is recorded in real time. Every single sen has a timestamp, a sender, a recipient and practically a biography. Steal a phone, try to use the e-wallet and the app will demand a fingerprint, then a face scan, then it will look directly into your soul and ask whether you are truly, genuinely, the registered owner of this TnG account. The answer, Mat Rompak , is no, you are not. Congratulations, you have snatched yourself a very expensive brick. The kapchai petrol alone costs

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Nearly three in five Malaysians are now using digital payments, which means the modern Malaysian handbag is essentially a decorative object – a museum exhibit of a time when humans carried actual

money on their actual person.

LETTERS letters@thesundaily.com Calls for harsher penalties on drunk and drug-impaired driving

drive vehicles fitted with breath-activated ignition systems. Ensure stronger enforcement Stricter laws must be supported by firm enforcement: 0 More random breathalyser and drug testing operations 0 Increased roadblocks during weekends and festive seasons 0 Joint operations between police and enforcement agencies 0 Monitoring of entertainment and high-risk areas 0 Immediate suspension of licence upon arrest Preventive measures At the same time, prevention must remain a priority: 0 Promote designated driver culture 0 Encourage use of e-hailing services 0 Improve late-night public transport 0 Expand public awareness campaigns targeting young drivers 0 Ensure responsibility among alcohol-serving outlets Driving under the influence is a deliberate and irresponsible act. When it results in death, it must be treated as a serious criminal offence, not merely a traffic violation. The message must be clear and uncompromising: If you drink or take drugs and drive and someone dies – you must go to jail. Only firm laws, strong enforcement and zero tolerance will deter offenders and protect innocent road users. No family should lose a loved one because of someone else’s reckless decision. Road safety must be treated as a national priority. Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye Member of Road Safety Council

DRIVING under the influence of alcohol or drugs is not a minor traffic offence; it is a reckless and dangerous act that endangers innocent lives. When such irresponsible behaviour results in death, it must be treated as a serious crime deserving harsher and mandatory punishment. Every life lost due to impaired driving is preventable and unacceptable. Statistics show that drink and drug-impaired driving continues to claim lives. In recent years, dozens of fatal cases have been recorded annually while more than a hundred cases involving death and serious injuries have been brought before the courts. These numbers may appear small compared to overall road accidents but the consequences are devastating. Each death leaves families shattered and communities grieving. Those who choose to drink or take drugs and then drive are making a conscious decision. When they do so, they effectively turn their vehicles into lethal weapons. The law must reflect the gravity of this conduct. Introduce stronger penalties We call for the following urgent measures: 0 Mandatory imprisonment for fatal cases – anyone convicted of driving under the influence resulting in death must face mandatory imprisonment with no option for a fine. 0 Lifetime driving ban – drivers responsible for fatal DUI offences should face permanent revocation of their driving licence. 0 Non-bailable offence for fatal DUI cases –

Only firm laws, strong enforcement and zero tolerance will deter offenders and protect innocent road users. – SYED AZAHAR SYED OSMAN/THESUN

such cases should be treated as serious offences, with immediate arrest and strict bail conditions. 0 Vehicle confiscation – automatic seizure of vehicles used in fatal drunk or drug-impaired driving cases. 0 Harsher penalties for repeat offenders –

repeat offenders must face longer jail terms and permanent disqualification from driving. 0 Mandatory compensation to victims’ families – courts should order compulsory compensation for families who lose loved ones. 0 Ignition interlock system for offenders – convicted offenders should only be allowed to