Beware the monsters who lurk in our midst

AS we start the day here in Malaysia, the Americans’ celebration of Halloween is in full swing. It is a time for costume parties and scary stories.

For the kids, it is one of the best holidays because they can look forward to feasting on the candy they collect from trick or treating.

Although Halloween traditions mean less to Malaysians, we are warming up to its commercial and social appeal. And which child will say no to sugar-laden confectionery?

But try explaining the festival to the two young girls in Johor whose mother, according to the police, forced them to have sex with three Bangladeshi men for RM50 a session.

Investigations revealed that every Friday for the past month, the 39-year-old unemployed woman took the half-sisters to a budget hotel so that the unthinkable could happen.

One of the men is said to be the mother’s lover of eight years.

What can the Halloween staples of creepy characters and tales of horror mean to the girls when, at the ages of eight and 10, they have already endured ghastly encounters with callous and sick adults?

Why fear ghosts and ghouls when it is the living and breathing that have done terrible things to these girls again and again? Why be afraid of what lurks in the dark when they are tragically familiar with the darkness within men?

Can they see the fun in Halloween pranks when life has made them the butt of a perverse joke?

Imagine telling the half-sisters about how parents in the United States sometimes worry when their kids go trick or treating unaccompanied by adults. These girls’ mother made them turn tricks, that is, have sex for money.

The Star calls her a “monster mum”. Some people feel such labels fool us into believing we can easily recognise the wicked and heartless among us, that they somehow live differently than the rest of us do.

It is a valid point. We should recognise that predators are usually well camouflaged. That is why we must always look out for our young ones, even if we are not their parents. It is often the smallest and most vulnerable souls that slip through the cracks.

The girls are now in the care of the Government. They deserve every chance for a much better future.

As for the mother and the men who exploited the girls in such a cold-blooded fashion, most of us will still see them as monsters. How else do you describe those who rob young children of their innocence?