Record management in Malaysia and others country

By Khairul Izzuan Bin Ahmad

1.0 The Act of Record management of Malaysia and other country especially for Preservation programmed.

Rules include act, guide and decision that have been done by organization or country and must followed by everybody. With the rules has been established will makes the field are secured and avoid the miss used and also will avoid the criminal happen. In this section will discuss the act of Record management of Malaysia in focused of National Archive of Malaysia with other develop country. Are Malaysia is followed the standard rules same with another country or not? That will answer in this section.

Before we go further to discuss about this topic we must know the main purpose of rules established. According to Pengenalan Kepada Pengurusan Rekod dan Sistem fail by Savumthararj.G in pages 175, author was describe that rules established for avoid the disposed of record in non legal way, Avoiding the lost of record whether by theft and so on, Avoiding copying information in non legal way, preserved those record have permanent value and as heritage of country and ensure records are handle as good as possible.

1.1 Avoiding disposed of record in non legal way.
Rules that have been created by country or organization will makes the record are not disposed in non legal way. As known, the disposed of record in non legal way will makes great lost for the country or organization. Beside that also will makes the authority of the country will lost when the matters include in the international cases. For an example The lost of Pulau Batu Putih to Singapore must give the lessons to the country.

The act have be established by National of Malaysia that have written in Act of Arkib Negara Malaysia 2003, that call any public record cannot be disposed without permission of National Archive of Malaysia. For the comparison with another country is National Archive of New Zealand, According to the National Archive of New Zealand, in their act is Under the public records Act 2005, no one may dispose of any public record without authorization form the chief Archivist. It could be transferred to Archives New Zealand or to some other archiving situation.(National Archive of New Zealand).

From the statement given can say the act in Malaysia in order to keep the record especially those record have value is same standard with another country. Beside that the preservation of record that have value especially permanent value can be done successfully and will give the opportunity for country to improve the national quality same with another develop country.

1.2 Preservation those records have permanent value.
Rules that have been created by country will make the heritage of country can preserved for long time, according to Act of Archive of Malaysia 2003, said any public record not current that in opinion of Director of National Archive have national value or permanent history value and old or both of them must be transfer to the National Archive and keep by National Archive of Malaysia.

That same with the develop country like United State of America, in their act about preservation those records have permanent value they said that :
“When it appears to the Archivist to be in the public interest, he may--
(1) accept for deposit with the National Archives of the United States the records of a Federal agency, the Congress, the Architect of the Capitol, or the Supreme Court determined by the Archivist of the United States to have sufficient historical or other value to warrant their continued preservation by the United States Government;
(2) direct and effect the transfer to the National Archives of the United States of records of a Federal agency that have been in existence for more than thirty years and determined by the Archivist of the United States to have sufficient historical or other value to warrant their continued preservation by the United States Government, unless the head of the agency which has custody of them certifies in writing to the Archivist that they must be retained in his custody for use in the conduct of the regular current business of the agency. (The national archive of United State)
Beside that according to National Archive of British in their Public Act 1958 describe the act of preservation of records that have value will keep in their archive, that will be improved by their act as below :
“(1) It shall be the duty of every person responsible for public records of any description which are not in the Public Record Office or a place of deposit appointed by the Lord Chancellor under this Act to make arrangements for the selection of those records which ought to be permanently preserved and for their safe-keeping.
(2) Every person shall perform his duties under this section under the guidance of the Keeper of Public Records and the said Keeper shall be responsible for co-coordinating and supervising all action taken under this section.
(3) All public records created before the year sixteen hundred and sixty shall be included among those selected for permanent preservation.” (National archive of British)
From the statement given, the act has been established by Malaysia is same standard with another develop country, that’s because each of country in this world will keep the record that have value for their country authority




DISASTER PLANNING: COMPARISON BETWEEN MALAYSIA AND OTHER DEVELOP COUNTRY.
Disaster planning is very important to make sure the organization are prepared when disaster comes, as known disaster we cannot predict and must aware about the disaster comes. From that planning disaster must be created to makes sure records that preserve can permanently use for long term. Before that, what is a disaster planning, as discusses about disaster planning previous, disaster planning can be define as document that explain procedures for avoid disaster, prepared while disaster, action must been taken while disaster and also the action of recovery after disaster( according to Pengenalan Kepada Pengurusan Rekod dan system Fail by Savumthararj.G)
After we know what is disaster plan, we must know why disaster plan is very important to record management and also the preservation program. Planning is very important to avoid the disaster happen, reduce of broken of material that effects after disaster, also take the quick action for recovery record those have broken.
Now, the next focus, will discuss about the focus area, comparison between Malaysia and other develop country. National Archive of Malaysia has established disaster planning to avoid the record their preserve are not broken and safe for future used. National Archive of Malaysia has plan before disaster happen, while disaster happen and also after disaster happen. The activity before disaster is ensuring all record custody are secure and protected by camera, ensuring temperature, humidity, light are suitable in record custody and so on. The activity while disaster happen is, have list of important telephone number like police, fire bridged and so on. Have emergency procedures and list of important thing like what must be save first. Plan after disaster is activate teams that responsible for save the record, ensuring disaster area save to enter, evaluate the lost cost and make research again about planning disaster.
After we know what the planning disaster that have been done by Archive National of Malaysia, we compare disaster planning that have be done by National Archive of United state of America in Disaster Preparedness for Records Manager Toolkit that have been distributed by National Archive of United State. In this tool kit, the planning they do is same with Malaysia and the information about that tool kit like below:

1. Table of Contents
2. Introduction
3. Approvals
4. Organizational Notification
5. Records Holdings
a. Recovery priority of original records on hand
b. Vital Records information
6. Response Action Checklists
7. Supplies and Equipment
8. Vendor, Expert, and Contractor Information
9. Salvage and Recovery Procedures
10. Appendices:
a. Phone Tree
b. Medical, utility, emergency responder information
c. Floor Plans & diagrams
d. Test and Exercise Schedule and Scenarios
e. Plain Maintenance Instructions
f. Mitigation/Prevention actions
g. Safety/Evacuation procedures
h. Post-disaster information
i. Information Technology
(Disaster Preparedness for Records Manager Toolkit by Natioanal Archive of United State)

From that, the preservation activity in Malaysia is same standard like Develop country. And from that also, that’s shows Malaysia also deep realize that record are important, and must be preserved for long time for the next generation purpose and also to makes sure the authority of country can be defend forever.