A SINGAPOREAN immigrant in New Zealand says the police can't protect the Asian community and he wants to employ triad gangsters to do the job for them.
Mr Peter Low, who migrated to Auckland in 1987, led more than 15,000 people in a protest march last Saturday in the heavily Asian-populated suburb of Botany Downs, calling on the New Zealand government to get tough on crime.
If the government failed to do so, Mr Low said he has the connections - and will bring in the triads to protect Auckland's Asian community.
"The police and laws in New Zealand are a joke," said Mr Low, who owns and operates an import and distribution business. "Unlike Singapore, where people can feel safe walking on the streets at any time of the day and night, in New Zealand, people are scared to go out."
Fed up with crime, which he says is "out of control", he formed a vigilante-style crime-fighting group, known as the Asian Anti-Crime Group (AAG), three months ago and initiated the protest march after three Asians died as a result of violence in South Auckland last month.
Mr Low, 55, said the march was a call to the government to toughen up the justice system and better resource the police.
Mr Navtej Singh, a liquor store owner, was fatally shot on 7 Jun; Madam Yang Yin Ping, 80, died after being viciously beaten in her home on 11 Jun, and Ms Joanne Wang, 39, was killed in a shopping centre hit-and-run
as she attempted to retrieve her snatched purse on 16 Jun.
SELF-DEFENCE TRAINING
Mr Low, who also runs a lion dance group, trained his members in martial arts and how to use everyday things like pens, belts and perfume sprays as weapons.
"We are not the triad, we are not the mob, but by all means if the government's not going to protect me and I cannot protect myself, I would have to employ someone, maybe personal security or bodyguards," said Mr Low in an interview with TVNZ.
"If the police and law cannot protect its people, we have no choice but to do everything we can to protect ourselves," he added.
His training methods also included asking members to snatch handbags from unsuspecting diners in restaurants, watch their reactions and then give them crime prevention advice.
Mr Low said he has at least 300 "vigilantes" who are in training in hand-to-hand combat and weapon-handling, and wanted the police to legalise the group - otherwise, he will call in the triads.
"Asians in New Zealand have lost faith in the police and its ability to protect us," he said. "We have become targets for criminals because most of them think we have lots of money and don't speak good English. We live in fear and anger."
In Auckland, safety advisories have also been issued by ethnic organisations like the New Zealand-Japan Society, telling visitors not to travel or go out alone after a spate of crime against Asian visitors.
Last month, police arrested three men for the murder of a 25-year-old Korean backpacker and re-opened a case on the disappearance of a 64-year-old Japanese tourist. Both cases took place in South Island.
Mr Low added: "New Zealand has the reputation of being a safe country. It is not. And if the government does
not do anything to make it safer for Asians, we will make it happen for them."
But his suggestion to let triads replace police in New Zealand has not only been condemned by politicians, it is also slammed by some in the Asian community.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said: "I was outraged at the suggestion that Asian criminal triad organisations should be brought into any kind of support for any law enforcement.
"Asian triads are a curse to law enforcement systems in societies around the world. We aim to repress them, drive them out, not have them involved in some way in law enforcement. I think people that make those sorts of suggestions should know better."
Mrs Pansy Wong, New Zealand's only ethnic Chinese MP, said Mr Low's suggestion was "totally unacceptable".
"We cannot have people taking the law into their own hands," Mrs Wong said.
COMMUNITY LEADERS
Yesterday, community leaders from Auckland's Chinese communities met in central Auckland to dissociate themselves and their communities from Mr Low and the AAG.
An Auckland Chinese radio station, Chinese Voice, which had backed and promoted Mr Low's protest march, also wants to distance itself from him.
The station's chief executive, Mr Gary Chang, went on air on Monday to explain the station's position and wants Mr Low to retract his suggestion on the triads and apologise to the community.
Within his own group, at least three key office-holders in AAG's central committee have also resigned.
Mr Francis Chai, who has resigned as head of the group's recruitment committee, said: "Our original intention was to help victims, educate the community and act as a pressure group, not to go out there and pick fights. It is all wrong."
Some people who have participated in the march also said they felt that they had been deceived.
"I feel I have been tricked into supporting the idea of getting triads to protect Asians," said Ms Wendy Wu, a
migrant from Wuhan, China.
"I want stronger laws so that I can feel safer in New Zealand, not to have Chinese gangsters to make me feel
even more unsafe."
The writer is a freelance correspondent writing for The New Paper from Auckland..
This article was first published in The New Paper on July 9, 2008.
