New laws to check racist landlords being drafted

KUALA LUMPUR: A new law to address issues of racial discrimination in the property market, among others, is being drafted by the Housing and Local Government Ministry and will be tabled in Parliament early next year.

Bernama quoted its minister, Zuraida Kamaruddin, as saying that the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) is expected to be ready by year-end.The aim of the new law was to address the issue of racial discrimination following incidents of landlords refusing to accept tenants due to their ethnicity, as well as to boost the residential rental market.

The Act will also be used to determine the affordable rental rate based on location, as well as laws to protect both tenants and owners.

It was one of the government’s initiatives to assist the younger generation, the B40 and the M40 groups.

The Act will have similar references to the law used in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia, with the local context to suit its needs.

She said this during a working visit to the Hulu Langat Zone Fire and Rescue Department’s sacrificial ritual programme in Selangor yesterday.

Meanwhile, the former PKR vice-president said she was ready to face the challenge thrown down by her former party to defend her Ampang parliamentary seat in the next General Election.

The Independent MP, who now uses the Bersatu platform, said she was also not afraid of PKR’s dare to reclaim the seat while welcoming her former party’s candidate to contest in a healthy manner for the seat, which she won on a PKR ticket at GE14.

Zuraida was commenting on a recent statement by PKR information chief Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin that PKR would take back the parliamentary seat.Apart from Ampang, PKR also wants to reclaim the Gombak parliamentary seat currently held by former PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.