The Malaysian Insight

PUTRAJAYA should make the setting up of a landlord-tenant tribunal a priority to prevent property owners from practising racial discrimination, said Bukit Gasing assemblyman Rajiv Rishyakaran.

He said the tribunal process was both cost and time-efficient and would save both sides the burden of legal proceedings.

The Housing and Local Government Ministry had failed to respond to the proposal that Rishyakaran broached last week, however,

“I hope the minister realises that there are real housing issues that need to be dealt with and that this deserves a response

”Although a tribunal is not the ultimate solution to racial discrimination among landlords it will at least have some change in the attitude of landlords,” he said in an online forum last night.

Lawyer and civil rights activist Syahredzan Johan, who was a participant in the forum, said the former Pakatan Harapan government had made some effort to curb racial discrimination of tenants but progress was stalled when it was ousted.

He noted that Malaysia did not have a law that specifically addressed racial discrimination between individuals.

He said Article 8(2) of the federal constitution prohibited racial discrimination on the part of the state.

He said the law did not apply to disputes between private citizens.

“When it comes to tenancy issues, as a lawyer myself I would not suggest the landlord to go to court as it would cost a lot and the case will take at least half a year,” said Syahredzan.

“This is why having a landlord-tenant tribunal would be great as the cost would be way cheaper,” said the lawyer

Business analyst Pingalayen Kumar said a survey he conducted showed about 45% of landlords tended to reject Indian tenants.

He said the closer the property listing was to Kuala Lumpur, the less Indian tenants were welcome.

“Listings that are open to Indians tend to be 19% more expensive than the average market price,” he said.

Last week Rishyakaran called for a tribunal to resolve the issue of landlords discriminating against certain races when letting out their property.

He said countries such as the UK, New Zealand and South Africa had set up similar tribunals and Malaysia should follow suit.

“We are proposing a very practical solution for the housing ministry to table in parliament and have the law passed in order to set up this tribunal

“The Ministry of Housing and Local Governance already has tribunals which means they know how to run one”. – December 23, 2020.