“Right before I was appointed (in 2019), the embassy managed to rescue 60 people,” said Malaysian ambassador Eldeen Husaini Mohd Hashim in reference to the recent case of 16 Malaysians being rescued and flown back to Malaysia from Cambodia. Eldeen Husaini said that many of the kingpins behind the scam call centres were Chinese nationals who would target Malaysian Chinese as they know the Chinese language. Based on 2020 statistics, 289 Form Six students took the STPM Chinese Language paper, compared to 566 candidates sitting for the Tamil Language paper that year. Sin Chew Daily quoted him as saying that only 29 secondary schools in the country offered the Chinese language subject last year. “Many students thought that those who took Chinese Language are allowed to only pursue an undergraduate course in Chinese Studies or other language courses.
