Decision of tribunal not final

The Star 14/7/2004

I REFER to the report “Big Blow to Consumers” (The Star, July 12).

A dissatisfied consumer can try to claim back his money of up to RM20,000 from his vendor without resorting to the tedious and expensive recourse by filing his complaint with the Consumer Claims Tribunal.

However, any successful claim through the tribunal is only as good as it gets if the affected vendor does not challenge the tribunal’s ruling via a judiciary review in the High Court.

Justice is such that any ruling by an arbitrator can be subjected to review by the higher court. Thus, the tribunal’s decision is not final.

During the judiciary review, the tribunal practically washes its hands of its ruling and the consumer is left on his own to challenge the vendor.

A big institutional vendor, who has a policy to protect, has the means and resources to challenge the tribunal’s ruling all the way to the highest court. An ordinary consumer will be overwhelmed by the firepower of such a vendor.

The poor consumer will not be able to recover his money and may even be left poorer after that. He may have regretted that he had sought the tribunal's assistance in the first place.

The recent much publicised case involving the Housing Tribunal must be an exception.

The intense publicity (thanks to the mass media) and the good housing minister’s indignation regarding the case prompted the Attorney-General to personally litigate for the group of house buyers against the Housing Developers Association in the Court of Appeal.

Nevertheless, the public should not expect such VIP attention for their individual case.

I am writing this from my own personal experience.


DR K.S. TAN,
Kangar