INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LAW, GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNICATION (IJLGC)

GOVERNING SUSTAINABLE STRATA COMMUNITIES IN MALAYSIA: ADDRESSING ENFORCEMENT GAPS, SPATIAL CONFLICTS AND LEGAL CHALLENGES

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0800

The rapid expansion of strata housing in Malaysia has transformed urban residential development by providing efficient land utilization and shared community facilities. However, the sustainability of strata communities continues to be challenged by persistent governance issues, including weak enforcement mechanisms, spatial conflicts, and legal disputes among stakeholders. While previous studies have examined these challenges separately, limited research has explored their interrelationship within a holistic governance framework. This study aims to examine the key factors affecting the sustainability of strata communities in Malaysia by focusing on enforcement gaps, spatial management conflicts, and legal challenges, as well as their implications for community harmony and governance effectiveness. A qualitative research approach was adopted through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Data were collected from five key stakeholders comprising representatives from local authorities, the Commissioner of Buildings (COB), and strata management bodies with direct experience in strata governance. The findings reveal three major challenges. First, enforcement efforts are constrained by limited institutional capacity, overlapping jurisdictions, and low resident compliance with established regulations. Second, spatial conflicts arise primarily from inadequate parking provision, misuse of common property, and increasing pressure on shared facilities in high-density developments. Third, legal disputes are exacerbated by ambiguities in regulatory responsibilities and residents’ limited understanding of their legal rights and obligations. The study argues that these challenges are interconnected and require an integrated governance approach rather than isolated interventions. It proposes a sustainable strata governance perspective that emphasizes stronger enforcement mechanisms, enhanced legal literacy, improved spatial planning, and collaborative stakeholder engagement. The findings contribute to the growing discourse on sustainable urban governance and support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) by promoting safer, more inclusive, and resilient strata living environments in Malaysia.

STANDING IN SEVERAL WORLDS AT ONCE: A THEORY OF MULTI-FIELD CULTURAL LEADERSHIP IN PUBLIC AND DIPLOMATIC SETTINGS

Fahmi Abdul Rahim, Noor Shuhailie M Mohamed Noor, Ahmad Khairuman Md. Hasim — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Cultural intelligence explains how an individual adjusts to one other culture, and boundary-spanning explains how a leader bridges two groups; neither explains the situation of a leader who must act within several cultural fields at once, whose expectations conflict and cannot be satisfied in sequence. This conceptual paper develops multi-field cultural leadership as a concept for that situation, common in diplomatic, public-service and internationalised settings. Synthesising the literatures on cultural intelligence, cross-cultural code-switching, biculturalism, boundary-spanning leadership, the multiple-audience problem and public leadership, it identifies a gap none of them fills, defines the construct, specifies five dimensions, differentiates it from adjacent constructs, and advances seven propositions and boundary conditions. Multi-field cultural leadership is defined as leadership exercised within three or more cultural fields that are simultaneously present and make conflicting claims, where the leader must compose single acts intended to be legible and defensible across plural cultural audiences at once, rather than adapting to each in sequence. Its distinctive demand is simultaneity and reconciliation rather than adjustment. The paper moves beyond the dyadic assumption in cultural intelligence and the two-sided assumption in boundary-spanning, giving cross-cultural public leadership a construct that matches its actual complexity.

SOCIAL MEDIA-MEDIATED NEGOTAITION OF CULTURAL VALUES AND NORMS AMONG CHINESE STUDENTS IN MALAYSIA

Duo Zhang, Awan Ismail — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Research on the cultural adaptation and psychological adjustment of international students abroad has been carried out extensively; however, relatively little attention has been paid to digitally mediated intercultural communication in Southeast Asian multicultural contexts, and specifically, how social media platforms shape emotional belonging, identity negotiation and participation norms. Therefore, this paper will address the above problem by redefining intercultural communication among Chinese international students in Malaysia as a platform-based communication process in a digital environment. Based on mediatisation theory, intercultural communication theory and digital identity studies, this conceptual paper develops an integrated framework to explain how platform affordances and algorithmic visibility shape four interconnected dimensions: platformised emotional belonging, digital intercultural participation, hybrid digital identity negotiation, and emotional visibility pressure. The framework shows that today's cross-cultural communication often occurs in communication ecologies shaped by online visibility, transnational connectivity and norms of emotional mediation. This study adds to the body of research on intercultural communication by extending mediatisation theory to the context of digital international students and providing a conceptual basis for future qualitative research on digitally mediated intercultural experiences among Chinese students in Malaysia.

REFRAMING LEGAL EDUCATION FOR HERITAGE PROTECTION: A CRITICAL LEGAL STUDIES PERSPECTIVE ON INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE IN MALAYSIA

Nurulhuda Adabiah Mustafa, Rasyikah Md Khalid, Nuraisyah Chua Abdullah — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is living, community-based heritage that is continuously practised, recreated, and transmitted. In Malaysia, its protection operates within a legally plural environment in which civil law coexists with Islamic legal administration. This study aims to critically examine the limitations of existing legal and educational approaches to ICH protection and to propose a transformative legal education framework. The study adopts a qualitative design combining doctrinal analysis of the National Heritage Act 2005 (Act 645) and relevant UNESCO instruments with qualitative content analysis of selected publicly available Malaysian law curricula and syllabi. Critical Legal Studies (CLS) is used as the analytical lens to examine how legal and educational structures may reproduce state-centric, formalistic, and fragmented approaches. Three interrelated limitations are identified: state-centric heritage governance that can marginalise community agency; limited integration between civil and Islamic legal perspectives; and predominantly doctrinal legal education that provides insufficient attention to the socio-cultural, religious, and interdisciplinary dimensions of ICH. The study develops a context-sensitive, transformative framework that integrates ICH across the legal curriculum, socio-legal and interdisciplinary learning, Islamic jurisprudential perspectives, experiential and clinical learning, digital and technological literacy, and institutional reform. The framework extends CLS scholarship into ICH governance and legal education while offering practical directions for more inclusive and culturally responsive heritage governance in Malaysia and comparable plural legal settings.

CONDITIONAL INDEFEASIBILITY UNDER THE MALAYSIA TORRENS SYSTEM: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ONG CHAT PANG & ANOR V VALIAPPA CHETTIAR [1971] 1 MLJ 224

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0800

This article looks at the Federal Courts’s decision in Ong Chat Pang & Anor v Valliapa Chettiar [1971] 1 MLJ 224 and how the doctrine of indefeasibility in the Malaysian Torrens system has developed over time. The case in question involved two parties who claimed ownership of the same piece of land. One party managed to have their transfer or ownership registered, but the Federal Court decided to deny the indefeasibility of their ownership claim based on the fact that they had failed to prove that they were a bona fide purchaser. This case therefore illustrates the principle that in Malaysia, ownership of land cannot simply be guaranteed by having the title registered but instead, the ownership claim must be proven to be a good faith claim. While this decision may be older than some of the discussions in the current debates on immediate and deferred indefeasibility, the Federal Court’s decision in this case has contributed to the development of Malaysian land law. By looking at this case within the larger scope of the development of Malaysian Torrens law, this article will demonstrate how important the decision was to this area of law. The decision in Ong Chat Pang is considered one of the first instances in Malaysian land law where the Federal Court introduced the idea of conditional indefeasibility, which would go on to become a principle that would be refined in the latter case of Tan Yin Hong v Tan Sian San. Through an analysis of Malaysian court cases, it can be demonstrated that while the courts have sought to provide certainty regarding land ownership through the indefeasibility doctrine, the courts have also sought to implement safeguards to prevent the abuse of the registration process.

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND PUBLIC SECTOR GOVERNANCE: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF MALAYSIAN CIVIL SERVANTS

Dayini Hajar Ahmad Tajudin, Farah Nabila Ahmad Nizam, Azlyn Ahmad Zawawi — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Ethical leadership has become increasingly important in the public sector amid ongoing concerns about governance and integrity, and declining public trust. This study examines the determinants of ethical leadership among public servants in Northern Malaysia, focusing on empathy, personal integrity, peer influence, and organisational culture. Guided by Transformational Leadership Theory, this study conceptualises empathy, personal integrity, peer influence, and organisational culture as key mechanisms shaping ethical leadership behaviour among public servants. A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was employed to examine the influence of these individual and organisational determinants on ethical leadership practices within the Malaysian public sector. Data were collected from 166 public servants in Kedah using structured questionnaires. Ethical leadership was measured using the Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS), while the independent variables were assessed using established and adapted measurement instruments. The findings indicate that the overall level of ethical leadership among public servants is high. Correlation analysis revealed that empathy, personal integrity, peer influence, and organisational culture were all positively and significantly associated with ethical leadership. However, multiple regression analysis identified organisational culture as the strongest and most significant predictor of ethical leadership practices. Although personal integrity and peer influence showed positive relationships, their effects became insignificant when other variables were controlled. These findings indicate that organisational culture exerts a stronger influence on ethical leadership than individual-level characteristics, highlighting the critical role of institutional values and organisational environments in fostering ethical conduct within the Malaysian public sector. This study contributes to ethical leadership literature by extending empirical evidence from the Malaysian public sector, demonstrating the relative influence of organisational and individual determinants of ethical leadership, and offering practical insights for governance reform, integrity enhancement, and leadership development within public institutions.