By Mohsin Abdullah

If a Malay puts out an ad to rent out his apartment, house, room and what not, and specifically says the tenant must only be Malay, is he being racist?

As a Malay, I dare say there are racist Malays, as there are racists in other communities as well. I'm sure we are all brave enough to admit there are racists among us.

So, I ask again, is the Malay who wants to rent out his property only to fellow Malays a racist? And is racism so deeply embedded to the point that the Malay in question cannot bring himself to accept Chinese, Indians or other races who are not Malays, as their tenants?

The answer is yes and no.

Yes, because as I said earlier, there are racists among Malays. These people just cannot tolerate people other than Malays. May God help them!

No, because to the Malay who wants "only Malay" tenants, he is pragmatic, i.e. "dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations".

I see it like this. The property owner, being a Malay, is also a Muslim. To him, his property must be 'syariah' compliant and must remain so at all times, meaning he does want things "haram" or forbidden by Islam to be brought into his property, like pork and alcohol. But pork is the main worry.

Next comes dogs which are seen as "unclean". But this is not much of an issue now, as quite a number of condominiums currently have regulations not allowing pets to be kept in apartments.

But for condos without such ruling and properties like houses, bungalows, semi D etc., the Malay owner will put into effect his "only Malay" tenants "edict".

Instead of listing out the "do's and don'ts" for tenants to abide by (which is not easy I must say), the Malay property owner only wants his "own kind" as tenants, to give him an easy way out.

The thinking is simple. Malay tenants being Muslims do not eat pork and thus will not bring pork into the property. That's the assumption anyway.

Malay tenants will not keep dogs also. The owner is somehow assured (or at least he believes so) that his Malay tenant or tenants are Allah-fearing and practicing Muslims and therefore will keep the property clean in accordance with Islamic teachings and ensure it's free of all things forbidden by his religion.

Of course, it can be argued that the owner can never be sure whether his Malay tenants, despite being Muslims, will not indulge in other things which are "haram." But lest he be paranoid, the owner will at least have the peace of mind his big concerns i.e. pork and dogs are taken care of.

As far as the Malay owner is concerned, he is not being racist or anti non-Malays. Never mind there are non-Malays who do not consume pork or have dogs as pets. As he sees it, Chinese "suka makan babi", or Chinese like (or should it be love?) to eat pork.

While Indians are not "associated" much with pork eating, the owner perhaps believes Indians have a tendency to have small "temples" inside the premises which can "grow bigger and bigger until it becomes a problem to remove". Perhaps there are other reasons which I do not know of.

Yes, the Malay property owner is stereotyping. But to him, he is being practical and thus "innocently insisting" that he only wants to rent out his property to Malays.

Naturally, there are people who see him as being racist. This can be argued till the cows come home – something which I don't intend to do.

Moving on, I recall reading news reports not too long ago about condominium owners who are Malaysians of all races, who got together and agreed unanimously not to rent their properties to Africans.

The Africans cried foul, saying racism at play and accused the Malaysian property owners of discriminating just because they were black. In a nutshell, they accused the owners of being racists.

The owners retorted, saying the reason for not wanting to have African tenants was because "the Africans are troublemakers involved in all sorts of criminal activities".

Stereotyping? Painting all Africans with a single brush? Yes. But can we say the owners are entirely wrong when forming their "conclusion"?

Again, this is also something which can be argued. Instead of saying until the cows come home, let's say this time until the moon turns blue. And I don't have the desire to see a blue moon.

I'm talking about this upon reading a MalaysiaKini report recently which said a study of rental listings has shown racism in property market.

According to the report, minority races often complain that "they are discriminated against by property owners who refuse to rent to them on the basis of ethnicity".

It is reported at some popular property listing websites that property owners or agents can check boxes stating "Malay, Chinese, Indian, or others" to state their their tenant ethnicity preference. And they can also state if they prefer a "Muslim-friendly" tenant.

And it is said also that the asking rent on advertisements for some places in Klang Valley open for Chinese or Malay are less expensive than those offered to others.

The "victims" are mostly Indians. Bear in mind, Malaysian Indians. And the report quoted a case where a gentleman was not allowed to rent simply because he was Indian.

And there was another case where an Indian man was told to leave two weeks after he moved into a property he was "allowed" to rent, as the owner did not realize he was Indian as she had preferred a Chinese tenant.

I can't speak on behalf of the Chinese. I don't know why they refuse to rent their properties to Indians, as in the cases mentioned.

I'm sure they would say their decisions have nothing to do with racism. And surely they would have their reasons for wanting preferred tenants, reasons which to them are justified.

Still I believe there is, again, stereotyping that all Indians are bad.

But just like all communities have their share of racists, there are also bad hats in all communities. There's no guarantee our own race will not play us out.

So, here's the thing. Let's stop the stereotyping and profiling. Treat everyone individually. There are rotten apples, and there are also good apples in one basket.

If you ask me whom I will rent my property to, if I have one, well, to anyone who pays the rent on time, who does not turn my property into a dump site, and one who looks after my property as if he has bought it himself with his own hard earned money.

Do that and you will be my tenant. It does not matter if you are white, black, yellow, or brown.

(Mohsin Abdullah is a veteran journalist and now a freelancer who writes about this, that and everything else.)