Malacca to set up panel to monitor condo occupants

The Star 23/10/2004

MALACCA: The Malacca government has ordered the state housing board to set up a unit to monitor tenants living in condominiums and apartments, especially where foreigners are staying. 

The unit is to be set up within a week, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam, who has also asked the management offices of these condominiums and apartments to submit their lists of tenants to the board within a month. 

All condominiums and apartments would have to update their lists every six months. 

The new directives came in the wake of the brutal murder of Taiwanese housewife Lin Fang Chu, 42, at her Golden Coast condominium at Klebang beach, near here, on Oct 19. 

Her 16-year-old daughter Lu Pei Ju was also slashed in the incident. 

Police have detained a 24-year-old Singaporean, who is unemployed, to help in investigations of the case, which is the first that involves a Taiwanese here. 

“We do not want to have jobless foreigners staying in condominiums and committing crimes due to shortage of money,” Mohd Ali told reporters after paying his respects to Lin at a funeral home in Jalan Bukit Cina here yesterday. 

The Chief Minister also visited Pei Ju, who had four slashes on her head and a thumb, at the intensive care unit of the Mahkota Medical Centre. 

He called on other Taiwanese staying in the state to remain calm as, he said, this was an isolated case. He hoped Taiwanese investors would remain in the state. 

Lin is to be cremated at the Jelutong cemetery on Sunday and her husband, Lu Shao How, would take her ashes back to Taiwan on Monday.