Racism against renters

Free Malaysia Today

Discrimination by landlords makes it difficult for some Malaysians to rent a room or property.   Read More: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2023/08/26/for-many-race-remains-a-hurdle-to-renting-a-home/  Free Malaysia Today is an independent, bi-lingual news portal with a focus on Malaysian current affairs.    Subscribe to our channel - http://bit.ly/2Qo08ry   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check us out at https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com Follow FMT on Facebook: http://bit.ly/2Rn6xEV Follow FMT on Dailymotion: https://bit.ly/2WGITHM Follow FMT on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2OCwH8a  Follow FMT on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2OKJbc6 Follow FMT on TikTok : https://bit.ly/3cpbWKK Follow FMT Telegram - https://bit.ly/2VUfOrv Follow FMT LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/3B1e8lN Follow FMT Lifestyle on Instagram: https://bit.ly/39dBDbe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download FMT News App: Google Play – http://bit.ly/2YSuV46 App Store – https://apple.co/2HNH7gZ Huawei AppGallery - https://bit.ly/2D2OpNP  #FMTNews #Racism #Renters #Landlords

Transcript

00:00 The internet may have simplified a tenant's task

00:03 of identifying houses or rooms to rent.

00:06 But for some Malaysians, that is not the end of their worries.

00:09 The racial discrimination they are liable to face from landlords

00:13 can sometimes be insurmountable.

00:15 Take married couple, Anton Tanabalasingam and Sherlene Yap,

00:19 who are both working professionals with steady incomes.

00:22 They are more than capable of meeting their monthly rental commitments.

00:26 However, for some landlords, their ethnicity matters more

00:29 than their ability to pay rent.

00:32 I guess the problems were

00:36 because quite a number of people didn't want to rent out to Indians for some reason.

00:40 Anton says there is an unfair stereotype about Indians being bad paymasters.

00:46 Activist Ryan Chua says existing legislation in Malaysia

00:49 is of no help to renters facing discrimination.

00:53 But he hopes that the proposed Residential Tenancy Act,

00:55 expected to be tabled in Parliament next year,

00:58 will help resolve the problem.

01:00 So when you have the Residential Tenancy Act,

01:03 elements of non-discrimination are also in there.

01:06 And it allows people to also have conversations

01:12 or to resolve such issues.

01:15 Chua says the law would prohibit the practice of racial discrimination

01:19 by landlords and give prospective tenants an equal shot

01:23 at securing a place to stay.

01:25 His NGO, Komas, is also pushing for a National Harmony Reconciliation Commission

01:30 to be set up to provide an avenue for mediation of issues

01:33 which relate to race and religion.

01:35 For Anton and Yap, however,

01:37 the court letter of the law alone will not resolve the problem.

01:41 I think if people just had a little bit more of humanity

01:45 in terms of interacting and dealing with others,

01:47 it would immediately solve the problem.

01:49 Samuel Chua, FMT News.

01:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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