PUTRAJAYA (Aug 16): The Institution of Geospatial and Remote Sensing Malaysia (IGRSM) in a joint memorandum alongside 11 other professional organisations on Friday called on the government to reconsider the recently approved amendment to the Licensed Land Surveyors Act 1958.

IGRSM said in a press conference held in Putrajaya that the legislative amendment’s criteria is currently unclear and would affect the livelihoods of geomatics practitioners from various fields as well as other related professionals. 

The legislative amendment, which was passed by the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara on March 25 and April 4 respectively, prevents non-licensed land surveyors from conducting geomatic surveys, said IGRSM president Abdul Rashid Mohamed Shariff during the meeting. 

“This would mean that anyone who is not registered as a licensed land surveyor with the Land Surveyors Board [LSB] can no longer practise the very wide industry of geomatics surveys. New graduates from various fields who have studied geomatics courses will also be restricted from conducting geomatics surveys.

“Furthermore, according to the legislative amendment, professionals conducting geomatics surveys who are not licensed land surveyors [LLS] can be considered to be committing an offence and can, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding RM250,000, imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or both,” he added.

In the original Licensed Land Land Surveyors Act 1958, only title survey is restricted to LLS registered with the LSB. “This is because land titles are guaranteed by the government. However, other branches of geomatics are not exclusively reserved for LLS and can be conducted by other qualified professionals,” Abdul Rashid said.

He added: “The geomatics profession has been actively growing among other professionals and scientists who use geomatics surveys in their daily works, including geospatialists, engineers, geologists, hydrographers, town and country planners, farmers, construction experts, air traffic controllers, sea navigators, as well as many other professions.”

While the legislative amendment stipulates a transitional period of six months for non-LLS geomatics professionals to register with LSB, Abdul Rashid said no clear guidelines on the requirements for LLS registration have been given to date.

“So as of today, there is no regulation on this that has been announced yet. So it is up to the Ministry [of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability] and LSB to announce what the criterias are. We are very hopeful that they will include everyone... but we are concerned nonetheless because LLS are experts in title surveys, but most of our members who are not LLS do not do title surveys because it is not related to their job. So if the requirement for LLS registration comes with the title survey criteria, how are these non-licensed land surveyors going to meet it?”

In addition, Abdul Rashid said that out of 41 relevant stakeholders IGRSM has conducted discussion sessions with, only three organisations namely Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM), Board of Architects Malaysia (LAM) and Board of Town Planners Malaysia (LPBM) were involved in engagement sessions with LSB on the legislative amendment “but they did not express support for the amendment of the act as approved”.

The remaining 38 organisations, he said, were “completely unaware of the legislative amendment as they were not informed of nor invited to the engagement sessions conducted by LSB in 2020, even though it significantly impacts their industries”.

“The absence of these stakeholders in the engagement sessions raises serious concerns about how the requirements and views of their industries were considered during the amendment process.”

In addition, he said that all 41 stakeholders did not receive any notice regarding a survey conducted through the Malaysian Productivity Corp portal from Dec 18, 2020 to Jan 15, 2021. “This raises questions about the effectiveness of information dissemination and the openness of this process to all parties involved.”

The 41 stakeholder organisations, to name a few, include the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Master Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM), National Water Services Commission (SPAN), Energy Commission (EC), Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), Telekom Malaysia, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Malaysian Institute of Planners (MIP), Institute of Landscape Architects Malaysia (ILAM) and relevant academic faculties from 11 private and public universities.

Meanwhile, the joint memorandum has made a request to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability for a copy of the reports for the engagement sessions and survey on Aug 1 but have not yet received any feedback regarding this matter, according to Abdul Rashid.

“We humbly request for reconsideration of the amendment to the Licensed Land Surveyors Act 1958. It is hoped that engagement sessions and extensive discussions with all stakeholders can be conducted to enable effective collaboration in ensuring a more balanced and comprehensive amendment, so that the industries involved can continue to function effectively and innovatively, as well as ensure that the development and stability of the country’s economy is not adversely affected.”

Other than IGRSM, the other signatories of the joint memorandum are National Hydrographic Association (Malaysia) (MyNHA), Malaysian Society of Soil Science (MSS), Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Geoscience & Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) Malaysia Chapter, Malaysian Society of Agricultural and Food Engineers (MSAE), Institute of Geology Malaysia (IGM), Agricultural Institute of Malaysia (AIM), Institute of Foresters Malaysia (IRIM), International Institute of Plantation Management (IIPM), Malaysian Society for Engineering & Technology (MySET), MIP and ILAM.

There are approximately 480 LLS registered under LSB in Peninsular Malaysia compared to around 977 geospatialists from multiple sectors in Malaysia, according to Abdul Rashid. However, he notes that there are currently no official statistics on the total number of geomatics professionals in Malaysia primarily because the geomatics field covers a broad spectrum of sectors, with each having various specialised roles as well as professional bodies and organisations.