Right Ways

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

When landlords are held accountable

To rent or not to rent?: A ‘To Let’ sign displayed at a house in SS15 Subang Jaya.

PETALING JAYA: A landlord’s rented property could unknowingly become a base for vice and crime, but legal experts say there are ways for homeowners to escape liability.

Former federal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) assistant director Datuk S. Shanmugamoorthy said owners can only be held liable if authorities can prove they knew about the illegal activities and failed to act.

“If police want to act against the homeowner, there must be evidence that the owner was either directly involved, or was fully aware of the activities and failed to take necessary action to stop or report it,” he said.

Shanmugamoorthy, who is also a lawyer, said proving this could be a challenge for investigators.

“It is not easy to take action against homeowners or to prove they were aware. But there are areas that can be probed. This could include CCTV footage showing the owner visiting the premises, financial trails linking illegal proceeds to the owner’s bank accounts or witness accounts from neighbours,” he said.

He said complicating matters further is the growing trend of sub-letting.

Shanmugamoorthy pointed out that in many cases, the main tenant may not be involved in any wrongdoing but sublets the property to others who carry out illegal activities

“This creates multiple layers of tenancy, which makes it even harder to establish who knew what,” he said.

National House Rental Association (NHRA) president Prakash P. Kalivanan said most landlords rent out their properties in good faith.

“They should not be unfairly penalised for illegal acts of their tenants that were not in their knowledge,” he said.

However, Prakash said landlords should exercise reasonable responsibility and diligence when renting out their properties.

He stressed that having a documented tenancy agreement is one of the most important safeguards and failing to do so could expose owners to greater risk.

“This is why having a tenancy agreement stamped by the Inland Revenue Department is important for homeowners to safeguard themselves. Terms and conditions in the agreement that prohibit illegal activities will show that tenants have been clearly reminded and are bound by them,” he said.

Among the illegal activities the NHRA is aware of are cases involving illegal cryptocurrency mining, prostitution, loansharking activities, storing stolen goods and harbouring illegal immigrants.

To protect themselves, Prakash urged landlords to take precautionary steps including conducting background checks on tenants, carrying out periodic inspections and maintaining proper documentation such as identification records and payment history.

“If homeowners become aware of suspicious or illegal activities, they should immediately report the matter to the authorities,” he said.

Japan at a crossroads; inside unit 731

Unpopular move? Protesters hold placards and lights during a rally against Takaichi’s administration for its military expansion policies in front of the parliament building in Tokyo last month. — Reuters

LAST October Sanae Takaichi became Japan’s first female leader of both the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the government.

The “liberal” in the LDP actually means conservative. Takaichi herself belongs to the hardline rightwing Nippon Kaigi faction of the party.

Soon enough, she would come to brush against China. Responding to a question, she said Japan would take military action if China moved on Taiwan and affected Japan’s interests.

That soured China-japan relations, triggering bitter WWII memories of a rightwing militarist Japan invading, occupying and committing war crimes in China. Those wounds have yet to heal.

Modelling herself after Britain’s brazen first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Takaichi was unapologetic. She further prodded Beijing by seeking to revise Japan’s postwar Constitution to favour militarism, and working with the US and its allies to contain China.

Other countries began to regard Takaichi’s Japan as potentially revisionist, bent on whitewashing its history of war atrocities and may even repeat them. So is Japan getting ready to remilitarise?

At issue is Article 9 of the Constitution on Japan’s military forces, officially the Self-defence Forces (SDF) after Japan’s surrender in 1945. Takaichi wants to remove the SDF’S constitutional constraints to enable an assertive military posture abroad.

That is challenging because it requires two-thirds majorities in both the Lower and Upper Houses of the Diet. While the LDP lacks support from the latter, it is working to boost military power, capacity and reach in other ways.

For the first time since 1945, Japan participated prominently in this year’s Us-led Balikatan military exercises with live-fire drills in the South China Sea. Japan will also be exporting lethal weapons, manufacturing to scale and expanding military links abroad.

Must this mean Japan is returning to its militarist past of a century ago? Much depends on the prevailing regional realities.

The US is encouraging other countries to play a bigger regional defence role. This is as true for Asia as it is for Europe, and applies for both Republican and Democratic administrations.

A 2012 Us-japan treaty would halve the 19,000 Marines in Okinawa by returning them to Guam, Hawaii and the US mainland. Deployments to the Philippines tend to be more limited and ad hoc.

In post-wwii East Asia, US military hegemony is seen to keep the peace by removing the need for Japan’s military build-up. The same applies with Germany in Europe.

However, US bipartisan policy is retrenching long-term regional military postings. Military forces will still be deployed for limited missions, such as in Iran or Venezuela, but major postings in far-flung regions are another matter.

Regardless of who is heading Japan’s government, Tokyo will want to look more to itself for its defence role and commitments.

Unlike Germany, Japan is not seen by other countries to have fully atoned for its imperial wars and the devastation they unleashed. An unrepentant rightwing leader now leading an apparent military revival only exacerbates Japan’s trust deficits.

Nonetheless, modern East Asia’s realities would inhibit if not prohibit any ultra-nationalist Japanese leader from returning to the country’s imperialist past.

Such an outcome will not be acceptable to Western powers because Japanese nationalism is anti-western. A rampant nationalist Japan will alienate all other significant powers in a more developed Asia and a more multipolar world.

Economically, Japan’s best days are over so it has insufficient resources to challenge the sovereignty of other global stakeholders including Asia’s middle powers. Its economy has slipped below Germany’s and India’s to fifth place, and continues sliding.

Socially and institutionally, Japanese hawks may be in a minority even in Japan. Groups and individuals stage protests against perceived drifts towards militarism, in a country where dissenting voices matter.

Even within the LDP and other mainstream institutions, evidence of an exclusive, monolithic bloc favouring militarism is sparse. The general public still tends to be averse to radical constitutional changes.

Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama criticised Takaichi’s petty populism, stressing that Taiwan’s status is China’s internal affair. Former Deputy Prime Minister Yohei Kono invested a lifetime in building bridges with China.

Another former Prime Minister, Yasuo Fukuda, accepts reinterpretation of Article 9 without descending into populist militarism. In 2017, then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared that Japan was ready to cooperate with China in the Belt and Road Initiative, despite Abe being another member of the LDP’S Nippon Kaigi faction.

Professor Mike Mochizuki says the way for Japan to work with a wayward Trump-led US is not to alienate China, but instead to improve relations with Beijing and deepen Tokyo’s stake in the region. Takaichi also happens to be reaching out to Asean countries like Malaysia in business deals, and this should be encouraged.

Kono passed away last Monday, while fine-tuning new plans for cooperating with China. Whether Takaichi’s realism will eventually outlive her populism remains to be seen.

Bunn Nagara is director and senior fellow of the Renaissance Strategic Research Institute, and honorary fellow at the Perak Academy. The views expressed here are solely the writer’s own.

By BUNN NAGARA

Bunn Nagara is director and senior fellow of the Renaissance Strategic Research Institute, and honorary fellow at the Perak Academy. The views expressed here are solely the writer’s own.

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Friday, June 12, 2026

Champion scions give Penang durian its edge, Farmers grafting superior cuttings for fruits quality variety

Pak Teh Fruits owner Mohd Taufiq Tajuddin, showing a variety of durian at his stall in Kampung Pelet, Jalan Guar Perahu in ~~Bukit Mertajam, Penang. — ZHAFARAN NASIB/The Star.~~

LET’S say you love Musang King durian and have the land, money and time, so you plant a seed from one.
Eight years later, the tree finally bears fruit.

What do you get?

There is no guarantee that a Musang King seed you sow will grow into a tree producing pure Musang King fruits.

Based on the laws of nature, you could end up naming your durian Musang Joker, Bad Musang or Musang Nonsense.

In March, the Johor government announced that the state’s 81,000ha of durian orchards recorded an annual production of 214,000 tonnes of the fruit.

With Penang island spanning about 30,000ha, Johor’s durian orchards collectively amount to nearly three times that area.

Johor’s durian tonnage comprises Musang King (40%), IOI (30%), Kampung Premium (20%) and Black Thorn (10%).

Data on Penang’s durian orchard sizes and tonnages is harder to acquire, but when you walk up to any Penang durian stall, you might be stunned by the variety.

You will find Ang Heh, Xiao Hong, Cheh Poay, Lipan, D600, D604, D11, D14, Capri, Tian Song, Black Thorn, Ang Bak Kia, Lin Feng Jiao and more.

A durian connoisseur will be able to tell the differences in taste, smell, texture and pulp thickness.

Some are extra bitter. Some leave a tingling sensation on the tongue.

Many carry hints of fermentation, honey, vanilla or even cinnamon.

I love Capri, D600 and D604, among the oldest varieties found only in Penang.

This season, I have developed a liking for D14, although it will take a few more tastings before it gets a spot on my must-have list.

You must survive many durian seasons and thousands of calories to build your own list.

Why does Penang have such a dizzying variety?

If there is land at your disposal, money and time, you might invest effort in a durian orchard.

You plant anonymous durian seeds and wait patiently.

Because of genetics and cross-pollination, this is essentially a durian gene roulette.

Perhaps only one in every 10 trees will produce truly exceptional fruit.

Let’s call that tree Dragon Reborn.

The fruits from the other nine trees may just be average ones.

So what is the next step?

You turn to what agriculturists call top-working grafting.

The underperforming trees are cut back, leaving only their roots, trunks and main branches.

Then you take scion wood from your Dragon Reborn and graft it onto your “headless” trees.

The scions grow into new branches.

Genetically, the roots and trunks still belong to the old trees while the fruiting branches and fruits carry the Dragon Reborn genes.

In Penang, many durian orchards are generations old, long before clones like D24 and Musang King gained mass-market fame.

Over decades of playing durian gene roulette, neighbouring orchard owners exchanged and bought scions, spreading successful clones throughout the island’s orchards.

Start a durian orchard from scratch today, and business logic dictates sourcing scion wood from the best-selling varieties.

That is why Musang King can become so widely planted in states with vast land areas that its price sometimes falls close to kampung durian levels towards the end of the season.

To durian lovers, here’s a tip _ savour no more than five or six varieties in a sitting.

Beyond that, your taste buds and sense of smell become overwhelmed, and every durian starts tasting the same.

Tags / Keywords:Musang King , durian genetics , Penang durian , Johor durian production , durian varieties , top-work grafting , durian orchard , scion wood , durian taste , cross-pollination

SOURCE:

Pinang Points 09 Jun 2026

Champion scions give Penang durian its edge)

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