-DATA PROTECTION AND PRIVACY-
Malaysia to Establish New Government Department for Personal Data Protection
On June 20, 2011, Malaysia’s Bernama News Agency reported that the Malaysian Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture will establish a government department to facilitate the implementation of Malaysia’s new Personal Data Protection Act. Malaysia passed the Personal Data Protection Act in 2010, but the law has yet to go into effect. According to the report, enforcement of the Act is scheduled for early next year.
Proposal to Have Privacy Officer to Implement Data Protection Law
New Zealand’s Assistant Privacy Commissioner Katrine Evans has suggested that Malaysia have privacy officers to implement the data protection law. A privacy officer is the person in an agency who can understand its business and, at the same time, help the agency get it right in handling personal information.”I don’t know whether Malaysia has the requirement for every agency to have a privacy officer but, if it doesn’t, you should have one,” she said when delivering her talk on ‘First Steps for a Data Protection Commissioner: Some Suggestions from New Zealand’ at the inaugural seminar on personal data protection. The seminar was opened by Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri DrRaisYatim, who announced the setting up of the Personal Data Protection Department under the ministry.
-TENANT SCREENING-
It’s Landlords Who Need Protection from Tenants
With talk of proposing a Tenancy Act, some are concerned over the lack of protection landlords have against the actions of bad tenants. No matter how good the screening process, it is just sometimes unlucky to get bad tenants. Despite a comprehensive and airtight tenancy agreement with the relevant terms and conditions spelled out clearly and concisely, it tends to be the landlord who suffers in the end. Poor tenants can hold the landlord at ransom refusing to move out despite many months of unpaid rental, knowing very well that the process of eviction is a very time consuming process. In the meantime, the tenant stays literally for free. If lucky, the tenant eventually moves out, but the landlord has little recourse to claim long outstanding rental arrears, unpaid utility bills and damages to the property other than wear or tear. In addition, the landlord would not know the next correspondence of the tenant to deliver the lawyer’s letter of demand, which will then lead to a summons if the former tenant does not pay. Tenants already have inherent protection and therefore they do not need any additional protection.