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Issues and Challenges of Land Policy in Malaysia Relate To Customary Land and Malay Reserve Land
Issues and Challenges of Land Policy in Malaysia Relate To Customary Land and Malay Reserve Land
Issues and Challenges of Land Policy in Malaysia Relate To Customary Land and Malay Reserve Land
1. Issues and Challenges of Land Policy in Malaysia Relate to Customary Land and Malay
Reserve Land
MALAYSIA LAND ADMINISTRATION POLICY
The development in a country surely will become greater from year to year. But, the
development made each and every time will cost many land to be used. So, there were some
policy has been made in order to managing the land. Same goes to Malaysia development
system. The development system in Malaysia will be also related to the policy of Land
Administration.
As can be seen in Malaysia, the main Act that referring to the Land Administration was the
National Land Code (NLC). The NLC has been established on year 1965 and also has been
called as Act 95. The application of the 1965 National Land Code has been enforced in all
states except Sabah and Sarawak. Besides the NLC, other legislation relating to land law
passed at the federal level include the Land Acquisition Act , and Strata Titles Act. There are
also legislations enacted at the state level such as the various Malay Reservation Enactments.
Based on a journal written by Zainal (2014), he said that the land administration and land law
practices in Malaysia are based on the Torrens system introduced by the British. Under the
Torrens System, the Register is everything. A title or an interest is conferred indefeasibility of
title under two conditions that are usage of correct forms and the forms are registered. There
are two key principles in the Torrens system of registration of title and rights cannot be
denied. The first principle of ownership registration is a material fact regarding the ownership
of one of the land. The material facts include the owner's name, details of which were given
land ownership, land area and the location, survey plan, and limit its borders. The mirror
principles are record that reflects all fact on the title register owner and all detail of the land.
The curtain principles are those record in the title valid and buyer could be safe depend on
information on the record. The principle of mirror and curtain just in general for the
ownership on the particular land, which mean everything that stated on the titles showing
everything that the interested parties need, there is no need for the interested parties to go
further. For the issued document of title, which mean the title issued to the owner, and
registered document of title, which stored will be keep by the land office, both contain same
information, but sometime we need to refer to the Registered Document Title by making the
private or official search at the land office to get the latest information on that particular land,
such as caveat, charge and etc.
CUSTOMARY AND MALAY RESERVED LAND
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It is clear that the land shall be categorized in many categories. In Malaysia, there were two
categories that nowadays have been effects badly in the process of the development in
Malaysia. Those are Malay reserved land (MRL) and customary land (CL).
The Malay reserve land was the land that provided by the government for the Malays in
Malaysia as the origin population in this country. According to the Federal Constitution
(1957), In the article 89 has spelled out that Malay reservation means land reserved for
alienation to Malays or to natives of the State in which it lies; and Malay includes any
person who under the law of the State in which he is resident, is treated as a Malay for the
purposes of the reservation of land. And as according to Turnbull (1989), the MRL is
stipulated under the Malay Reservation Enactment (Cap 142), which had been in force since
1913 and amended from time to time. While Trezzini (2001) also has found out that currently,
most of Malay reserve lands are either left idle or underutilized. Compared with its neighbors,
Malay reserve land is considered as lagging behind its neighbors economic development.
Consequently, issues related to the development of Malay reserve land are focused on the
legislative barriers such as restrictions in land dealing, collateral, and multi-level ownerships.
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The land policy shall be implemented and enforced through all the development in Malaysia
and other act shall be also implemented on Sabah and Sarawak on their land administration
process. However, the implementation of the policy shall brought some issues that has been
relates to MRL and CL in Malaysia.
The MRL was already been gazette by the federal government in long time ago which at the
same time as stipulated inside the Federal Constitution. However, several issues have become
major when the MRL nowadays has been decreased in number.
From the article that has been written by Aliasak.M (2009), the issues of the number of the
MRL has been decreased was the major issues that caused by the implementation of the land
policy in Malaysia.
As can be seen in land policy in Malaysia, the MRL were not been taken good care by the
local government either the federal. The MRL in the state such as Selangor were so many in
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The policy that has been implemented in the state level were somehow not to strictly
preserving the MRL. The policy also allowed the owner of the MRL to convert the title of the
land from the MRL to free-hold title. This thing somehow will affect the numbers of the
MRL. The state government policy for land matters also can take the title of the MRL in there
was natural resources beyond that particular land. So, where is the policy that preserving the
number of MRL?
As for the customary land, the issues has been seen arise when the state government
involvement take place. The development process shall need to be carried on and the land
BSc. (HONS) in TOWN AND REGIONAL PLANNING, UiTM SHAH ALAM
The challenge that firstly will be faced by us is the MRL and CL will probably vanish from
our country. The policy that been implemented shall need to ensure the MRL and CL were
protected and cannot been change the title simply. If this is not been done, then there will be
no more MRL and CL in the future. The consequence from it shall be faced by our future
young Malay generations whereby at that time there is no more land for them and if it does
have, there is no longer the land that has been inherited for you as the origin population of our
country.
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We can take example from the other country that not preserving their land and it end up with
the outsider take control of the land and the origin people will no more rights on it. Aliasak.M
(2009) gives the example such as the crisis between the Palestinian and the Israel people
where they used to move in the Palestine and the policy of the land at that time allows the
others to have the land title and lastly the almost all land in Palestine were concurred by the
Israel people and the bad things is the Palestinian has been chased out from its country. So,
the land policy in Malaysia shall not be made just to fulfill the requirement to have the
policies to administrate the land but the unseen factor must be taken into consideration to. We
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Generally we can see the main trend of those issues is inequalities. There
are about inequalities of gender. Gender differences in land tenure should
be recognized if land objectives, such as increasing land productivity,
providing affordable housing, or promoting sustainable resource
management, are to be met. There is a need for land tenure policy
frameworks that explicitly address gender inclusive access to land.
Without specific attention to gender inclusiveness, important segments of
society may be excluded from the benefits of land administration,
management, and development schemes. That why, the Bathurst
Declaration state that, land tenure and land administration systems is
important to avoid that issues. Land is also a social asset that is crucial for
cultural identity, political power and participation in decision making.
Womens equal access to land is a human rights issue. It also has other
benefits. Evidence shows that womens land rights reduce domestic
violence that women who own land are more capable of exiting violent
relationships and negotiating safe sex. Agricultural production and food
security also increase when women are granted tenure security. With
significant demographic shifts in rural and urban areas, development
organizations and professionals have had to seek new strategies to tackle
gender issues. In the land sector, this may mean giving women and men,
directly or through co-ownership, greater security of tenure and better
access to land resources. Greater security of rights to land increases the
holders ability to make decisions regarding appropriate economic
strategies that may include diversification from subsistence farming.
Security of tenure is a key to enabling individuals and households to
participate effectively in economic development. How the land tenure,
property, and development save the issues? Is state that, the law provides
a complex set of rules that have evolved within each society to ensure its
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The group which contributed to the Workshop is aware that the result of
the Bathurst Declaration is a start only, albiet an important one, on the
road to understanding the relevance of land administration in the path to
sustainable development. It is at least an ideas list which can assist in the
creation of the infrastructures and the institutions necessary to meet and
serve the policy issues relevant to each society, recognizing these issues
are contentious, debatable and politically sensitive. Societies around the
world continue to march into a future that is dogged by changes and
pressures reflecting the complexity of challenges on economic, social,
political and environmental fronts. The current global drivers of
environmental crises, rapid urbanization, radical economic reforms and
the information technology revolution, add to the kaleidoscope of forces
that both assist and obstruct the process of understanding and
overcoming the challenge of sustainable development. Importantly
however, from a professional perspective, The Bathurst Declaration has
confirmed the powerful link between appropriate land administration and
sustainable development. In doing so, it has further confirmed the gradual
evolution of land administration from its cadastral, market focus to an
additional facilitative role for multi-purpose spatial information
infrastructures that better address the complex demands for sustainable
decision-making over development of land and related resources.
Throughout the workshop discussions, it was agreed that the most
significant influences on the development of land administration systems
is the dynamic humankind-land relationship and existing global and local
drivers such as sustainable development, urbanization, globalization,
economic reform and the information revolution, all of which demand land
administration responses and are forcing a new land administration vision
or paradigm. A new land administration paradigm is required if sustainable
development is to rise above mere rhetoric.
CONCLUSION
As a planner, the Bathurst Declaration must be taken as a guide in order to
create more sustainable land administration in the future. All the aspects that
have been spoke out in the declaration shall need to be takes into consider
and the sustainable land administration can be applied by the planner and
planned a better nation in the future.
REFERENCE
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