We can see on a daily basis how foreign workers are being treated in our country by everyday citizens to big corporations. You would think that especially in the year 2020, we would be kinder to each other but that doesn’t seem to be the case at all.
Alia (name altered for privacy reasons), a Pakistani-Bangladeshi student studying in Malaysia reached out to World of Buzz to share her story in the hopes of creating awareness. Alia has been enduring suffering from her landlord ever since she moved into the unit last year. Even though it’s clearly stated in the lease which they both signed that her rental period only ends in September 2022, out of the blue, Alia was told that her contract will be terminated in March 2021 when her university course ends.
“It is quite frankly not her business when my course ends or what I am doing as long as I am living in the country legally.”
When she sent screenshots of her lease, all the landlord said was “I only agreed to that tentatively because I did not know how long your course was”. Her excuse for kicking Alia out was because she was apparently talking to interested/potential tenants. Throughout the duration of her stay, her landlord told her multiple times that there are going to be tenants moving in but no one ever came.
What has your landlady done so far that distresses you?
According to Alia, so far her landlady has:
- Forced her to throw out the trash while it was raining outside
- Asked her to not take up too much space in the fridge and kitchen cupboards before anyone even moved in and she was literally the only tenant there.
- Pluck out small chunks that fell through the sink drain holes that are impossible to reach because of size because she was worried the drain would get clogged.
- Before Alia started paying her for a cleaning service, she used to clean the place herself. During her final exam month, her landlord asked her to clean the place because a tenant was coming. Alia told her she was going to clean the place 1 week later than usual because she had to study. She asked Alia to postpone her exams to which Alia refused and she cleaned after her exam. However, the said tenant never even came.
“It occurred to me that she is racist after considering her attitude towards me overall.”
Alia said her landlady has been extremely friendly towards her friend who stayed for a month and another friend who got stuck there due to the Movement Control Order, the latter didn’t even pay rent. When asked, the landlady simply said it was a “special case”. She either ignores Alia or only talks to her when she has to complain.
“Those girls are Malaysians and I am not. It couldn’t have been religious discrimination since both me and my landlord are Muslims while the girls are Christians.”
When Alia threatened to take legal actions against her for violating the lease, she rudely said she did her part by telling me in advance and as the owner, she has the right to terminate the contract whenever. Alia said she’s coming forward with this story so that no one has to face this kind of racism and prejudice in 2020!
“I know when I am wrong and work on myself and I know when I am innocent/right. I definitely do not deserve this. Especially not during a pandemic,” she said.
What would you like to say to other landlords out there?
We asked Alia what has she learnt from this issue and her answer is simple yet powerful. She believes that people should talk things out immediately like adults instead of pretending everything is ok for a while, then getting passive-aggressive then blowing up and setting ultimatums out of the blue.
For landlords, she believes that there’s no need to be racist but if you’re uncomfortable of dealing with people from different backgrounds, at least be honest about it.
“Instead of taking them in, charging rent and extra fees then treating them horribly. You cannot have it both ways. That is not right!”
As Malaysians, we pride ourselves on Malaysian Hospitality and friendliness. But when incidents like these occur, it gives all of us a bad name. We hope that situations like this will be handled with care. Let us know what you think about this!
Also read: Malaysian Shows How Racism Against Indians Still Prevails When Renting Rooms
