Housing Ministry acted correctly
NST 21/11/2005 Kabukiman, Kuala Lumpur

I REFER to the letter entitled "Not all on list are rogue developers" (NST, Nov 15), from the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association of Malaysia (Rehda).

Rehda claims that the Ministry of Housing and Local Government is acting unfairly in publishing a list of rogue developers.

It says the ministry needs to distinguish between the "real" rogues and the ones committing "minor technical infractions".

Rehda claims the majority of offenders are of the minor kind, falling under:

• Section 7(f), dealing with half-yearly progress reports; and,
• Regulation 6(1)(a)-(j), dealing with advertisement content.

I think the ministry has done no wrong.

Rogue, by definition, means dishonest or unprincipled persons.

The two "undamaging" technical offences stated by Rehda would definitely fall under the definition "unprincipled".

Otherwise, the ministry should reclassify this group of offenders under the "Incompetent Developers List" for being unable to understand advertising conditions, and for not being able to comply with a requirement that is mandated once every six months (Section 7(f)).