Posters and advertisements from illegal money lenders (Ah Long) has become more rampant, especially in big towns, despite frequent operations carried out by police and local authorities to clean them up.

Melaka Town has its fair share of the problem, but many do not know that former drug addicts contribute to the efforts to maintain public property and beautify the town.

Everyday, eight residents and a supervisor from Pengasih Melaka arm themselves with scrapers and patrol the town taking down ads from electric poles, trees, signboards, electrical boxes and walls in areas under the Melaka Historical City Council (MBMB) jurisdiction.

Pengasih Melaka secretary Mohd Zaini Zainal Abidin said the non-governmental organisation (NGO) got involved in the project in April 2007 after the then MBMB mayor, Datuk Zaini Md Nor, received a suggestion to create job opportunities for Pengasih Melaka residents through the Teduhan Kasih project.

He said, motivated by the trust and responsibility they were entrusted with, the residents did the clean up job in Melaka Raya within three weeks.

Mohd Zaini said MBMB then offered them the task of removing ads and clearing rubbish along the SPA Highway (Sungai Udang-Paya Rumput-Ayer Keroh), from December 2007 to date.

"This proves that the residents are capable of making a meaningful contribution to ensure Melaka is free of negative elements," he told Bernama here.

He added that 140 residents were involved in the cleaning works at 170 roads and alleys, throughout the five year period.

Commenting further, he said eight residents worked in a group from 8.30am to 2.30pm, followed by monitoring to ensure quality of work and activities by Ah Long in putting the ads back up.

For their services, Pengasih Melaka is paid RM14,600 monthly to support their overheads and pay residents involved a monthly salary of about RM700.

"This job indirectly trains them to manage themselves, their time and finances to face the outside world," said Mohd Zaini who supervises 26 residents aged between 16 and 56.

He said it also taught them to communicate with society and manage risks and problems arising from taking down the posters and ads.

Therefore, he welcomed local authorities to engage the services of Pengasih and other NGOs in order to support them.

Meanwhile, resident Zamri Sudin, 40, said the task of taking down the illegal posters and ads was not as easy as they faced threats from Ah Longs and political party supporters.

"They get angry and threaten to put up the posters and ads again, but I explain to them nicely that it is my job and I don't mind taking them down again," said Zamri, one of the first residents to start this work.

He said initially he had to take down the posters several times at the same locations after loan sharks repeatedly pasted them back.

"I keep reminding myself that it's my duty and not just a job. And that it's a community service," he said.

As for 37-year-old Mohd Shahnahar Hamdan, being involved in this job has made him more grateful and confident of leading a better life.

He said it was like being given a second chance to be accepted by the community.

Meanwhile, MBMB mayor Datuk Zainal Abu said, besides enforcement by the council, the cooperation with Pengasih Melaka was regarded as having a positive impact on the maintenance of public property and preserving the beauty of Melaka town.

"We see that their performance is good and quality of work on par with private companies appointed for the same job," he said.

He admitted however, that efforts to curb illegal money lending activities would not end by removing such ads, but instead depended on the refusal by the community to succumb to their extortion.

"This goes back to our people's mentality. Why must they choose loan sharks who are not only risky but charge high interest and threaten defaulters ," he said.

Realising the seriousness of the problem, MBMB has implemented various campaigns and awareness programmes to discourage the public from dealing with Ah Longs.

Zainal also reminded the public to take down important details such as car licence plates of anyone seen putting up these ads and inform the authorities.