When the present ruling government passed the Housing Development Act (Control and Licencing) (Amended) 2002 (Act A1142), it promised salvation for the long-suffering house buyer in Malaysia.

Unfortunately the Act turns out to be similar to a political promise; plenty on the hyperbole but very little in substance.

The Act itself has been challenged in court by the developers in their attempt to limit its jurisdiction. Although the court has ruled against them, the developers paid no heed to the Act itself nor to the Housebuyers' Claims Tribunal.

Although the tribunal (which was formed under the Section 16B of the Act) has passed many judgments for many individual house buyers, most of these judgments were ignored by the developers.

In fact some developers don't even bother to turn up for hearing at the tribunal office, even after they were given ample notice to do so. For example, on May 25, there was a hearing at the tribunal office involving one house owner from the low-cost area at my housing area.

The developer didn't even bother to send a representative. This, I believe, is not the exception, but the rule. I believe that the tribunal is being ignored by the developers since it is regarded as a toothless tiger by them as it has no way of enforcing its judgments.

I dare say that of the many judgments passed by the tribunal, very few have been fulfilled by the developers. I ask the respective ministry: how many developers have paid up?

The developer of my housing project is a very well-known corporate figure and is politically well-connected, therefore his total disregard for the Act and the tribunal is not surprising. His disregard for the tribunal is representative of the attitude of other politically well-connected developers.

The developers are also utilising loopholes within the law, by separating the respective housing development company from the parent company upon the completion of the housing project and then letting the housing development company go bankrupt or missing, to avoid paying the awarded litigations.

We have seen this happen many times before. A well-publicised example is the Riverdale Park housing project at Bukit Antarabangsa, Selangor. The developer, Zed Enterprise, is now no longer traceable.

Our prime minister may be sincere when he asked us to work with him instead of for him. But his corporate political allies are working not either with him or the people, but for themselves.