Before we start, visualise this - I'm a petite 5-foot-tall girl with rounded specs, mid-length hair with bangs covering my forehead, often dressed in smart casual wearing my office lanyard, carrying a Gudetama backpack as I head to work.
Every weekday, I board the MRT to and fro the Muzium Negara station, which is connected to KL Sentral - which I'll need to pass through to get to my office. It's been my daily routine for the past two years, and somehow, I still feel the need to speedwalk through KL Sentral due to the most unserious reason ever.
While I'm not sure if it's because I look timid or just genuinely very friendly, there will always be sharp-eyed ‘citizens’ walking around KL Sentral looking for their next target (or… victim). While they approach people individually, it's not hard to spot that they're not working alone, as there are a few members from the same team often working close by, together just as suspiciously.
They target lone-commuters, particularly women who obviously won't have the ability to fight back against a group of their own people. They approach you initially as if to ask for directions, and then start inviting you to learn more about their cause, or as I call it - cult, because they then start to impose their choice of religious faith onto you without you ever having consented. Rather than feeling inspired by their sharing, I often find myself feeling confused and even disgusted as this modus operandi.
While I will not be sharing any names or causes as it can be a culturally insensitive generalization, I often refer to them as cults because honestly, if it's not something shady, why else would you feel the need to catch commuters on their way to work in a public area to convince them to join your cause? Social media and digital platforms are very accessible these days, but will definitely leave a digital footprint - which is likely one of the reasons they'd prefer to only have verbal interactions to grow their cult base.
Unfortunately for me, these cults approach me once at least every 1-2 weeks. Might not be often, but on some days, there can be 2-3 approaching me in the same day, and somehow, they'll purposefully cut through the crowd of commuters walking about just to approach ME, which no, I'm not flattered by. The first few times after being approached, I did respond just to be nice, but these days, I'd have to (unfortunately) rudely turn them down saying a resolute ‘NO’ or ‘I have to go to work’ and walk away quickly as they would continue to pester me to listen. Hence, this means that even if there was a genuine commuter approaching me for directions, I'll turn them down immediately to prevent falling into the rabbit hole of long, baseless explanations. Gomen.
As a lone, petite woman, I don't fight back due to concerns on my own safety - somehow, the officers standing nearby watching these group of cult members operate don't do anything as well. No, I don't expect that the officers report them, but they should at least have the responsibility to reprimand them about their actions and hopefully ‘shoo’ them away to give commuters peace of mind as they go on their daily routines. Unfortunately, I have felt very alone in this challenge.
Seriously, why is this even happening? It's disheartening to see this go on for so long without any action taken towards cult members, who are actively targeting lone women as they have the tendency to respond kindly and are unlikely to fight back. KL Sentral is a public area with many commuters, often long-distance commuters and employees, who should feel safe and happy on the way to their next location.
C Chai (crystal.chaijeecheng@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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