Several land registries in Peninsular states are seeking to clear the backlog of unprocessed applications to register land which was caused by a recent computerisation scheme, said Minister of Land and Co-operative Development Kasitah Gaddam today.

"Due to the computerisation, the offices were closed for a month and therefore unprocessed applications are piling up," admitted Kasitah when asked to comment on public complaints that land departments are slow to process applications for land titles for business and legal purposes.

"Now that the offices are re-opened, they are trying to clear the backlog which has been accumulated for weeks," the minister told a press conference after officiating a seminar on amendments to land laws in Kuala Lumpur.

However, the minister did not provide any figures of the complaints and unprocessed applications that the land registries have in hand currently.

Since 1998, the government has allocated RM210 million for digitising the databank of land registries throughout the Peninsula. The plan was executed in two phases, with the second phase initiated late last year.

Among the seven states involved in the second phase were Selangor, Johor, Penang, Melaka and Kelantan.

Immediate actions

Recently, Malaysian Bar Council president Mah Weng Kwai urged the goverment to take immediate actions to expedite the registration procedures at land registries in Penang, Johor and Shah Alam in Selangor.

He said law firms are facing difficulties to retrieve formal documents on lands from the relevant authorities, citing cases where clerks from those firms had to queue up at the registry office as early as 2am for the documents.

He said that applicants have been asked to wait for days and even months before they were given the documents they requested for, adding that in many cases the documents contained dubious particulars which were unverified.

Mah also said such a delay had caused inconvenience to property transactions, particularly those involving bank loans.

In response to that, Kasitah assured that the problems of unprocessed applications will be rectified over the next three months, adding that the land registries involved in the first phase of computerisation are currently operating smoothly.

Unified national policy

The minister also said that the government is studying the possibility of combining and streamlining the Ordinances of Land in both Peninsular and East Malaysia into a unified national land policy.

"It is for the good of national unity. In fact Sabah and Sarawak have some very good provisions in their land laws which we should adopt in the Peninsula," he said.

Prior to joining the Peninsula to form Malaysia in 1963, amid widespread fears about an unknown future, Sabah and Sarawak signed a 21-point agreement with Malaya. Among the concessions granted to them were autonomy over immigration, administration, education and land affairs.

Currently, Sabah and Sarawak have their separate land administrations and are not compelled to abide by the decisions reached in the National Land Council of the federal government.

However, Kasitah said the process will take a long time as there are sentiments within the East Malaysian community which are not in favour of the effort.

He said the proposal is yet to be presented at the Cabinet meeting as the ministry is explaining it to the land administrative officers at state level.

"Once we achieve a consensus among the officers, we will then propose it officially to the Cabinet," he said.