The tycoon who kidnappers shun

THE late Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew, whose rags-to-riches story never seems to bore anybody, is a legendary tycoon philanthropist that had even awed Penang-based kidnappers.

At the peak of kidnapping activities in the early 1990s, Boon Siew could walk freely without bodyguards and drink in a Penang downtown coffee shop every morning before he went to office, while other tycoons in Malaysia had to surround themselves with tight security.