Malaysians who try to borrow money from loan sharks would be prosecuted under proposals floated by police, who are cracking down on illegal money lending.

The director of the federal Commercial Crime Department, Ramli Yusuf, said police were submitting proposals to change laws in order to prosecute people turning to Ah Longs - Malaysian slang for loan sharks.

"Loan sharking is an offence and people should know better than to go to the Ah Longs," Ramli was quoted as saying in the Star daily.

"The borrowers know very well what the Ah Longs are capable of doing if they fail to settle their debts," he said.

Ah Longs charge much higher interest rates than normal lenders and are accused of using violence to intimidate errant borrowers.

Ramli accused borrowers of contributing to a system that sees Ah Longs resort to crimes such as assault and even murder to recover bad debts, and said it was unfair for police just to pursue the loan sharks, the New Straits Times reported.

"If the borrowers stop going to loan sharks, then the number of crimes related to Ah Long will drop," he was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

Rights group Amnesty International today criticised the police proposal, saying it ran counter to a duty to protect citizens.

"This goes against the fundamental role of the police to safeguard the public and the complainant," said the executive director of Amnesty International Malaysia, Josef Roy Benedict.

"We fear this will affect the public's right to engage with the police, to lodge a complaint and seek protection from the police," he said in a statement.

Malaysian police last month began a crackdown on illegal money lenders amid a series of reports about loan shark victims who were assaulted or forced to flee their homes to evade them.