For non-Muslim religious bodies, getting government approval for a piece of land to site a building for worship purposes is a most daunting challenge. While the Government makes provision for land to build worship places, the process to acquire the land and subsequently erect the building is so cumbersome, obstacleridden and protracted that many applicants just give up.
For the tenacious few who won’t quit, the process could take up to 10 years. That is, if their application sees the light of day. Many have therefore resorted to housing their worship places in various types of buildings.
But first, let’s look at the law. According to the Town and Country Planning Standard Manual, Peninsular Malaysia 1998, the density ratio is 1:2,600 non-Muslim residents or 1:5,000 residents. The area for every 2,600 non-Muslims must not exceed 0.5 hectare and the building can only cover 40% to 60% of the lot and must comply with the Uniform Building by-law 1984.
Additionally, “as far as is possible, the non-Islamic place of worship should not be located in an area where the majority of the population is of the Islamic faith. Special consideration could be given in an area where the majority of followers are from a particular non-Islamic religion by the authority under specific circumstances.” [Town and Country Planning Department (JPBD) 4/2000]
In theory, applying for land for religious purpose is straightforward, as follows:
- Firstly, identify if there is land available (for religious purposes) through the district officer or survey officer. Generally, land is classified under the industrial, commercial, institutional, agriculture or residential category.
- If the land (that has been identified) is not gazetted under any of the above, then you need to apply for the piece to be gazetted under institutional land for religious purposes.
- Once it is gazetted, you can start your application to erect the building. Again, this process can take some time.
For new housing estates, you need to:
- Approach the housing developer to identify the land.
- Solicit the help of the developer to apply to the Town Council to designate the land for religious purpose.
For existing residential areas, you may also identify private land and apply to convert it for religious use. The application is to be made to the state executive council and processed by the land office.
lt may sound simple but in practice, the application for land for religious use goes through many committees, including the district security committee, the state security committee, various government departments, the police, and even the Islamic Religious Affairs Department, and finally the state executive council.
Along the tortuous route, there is the danger that the application file can go “missing”. Even after surviving the arduous journey and the land has been converted for religious use, there is still the building stage that is also fraught with many hurdles. The church now has to submit an application to the local authority for approval of the building plans. However, because it involves a non-Muslim place of worship, the process of going through the district and state security committees has to be repeated.
The process to acquire land is indeed difficult and not for the fainthearted. However, it is not impossible. Recently, the Holy Light Church in Johor Baru received approval from the Johor government to convert its land from agricultural to religious use. The process took 16 years!
The church had bought the agricultural land in 1989 and when they applied for the conversion of the land use, they found out that the state government had other plans for it. In 1995, the church filed a suit against the government which subsequently withdrew from the land acquisition.
In 1999, the church applied again for the use of the land, which was sub-divided into two lots, to be converted for institutional and religious purposes. In 2000, the state government only approved one piece for institutional use.
The church’s tenacity in pursuing its application bore fruit in April when, at its meeting, the state executive council finally approved the application. The matter had earlier been highlighted to the Chief Minister by Roger Tan, a Bar Council member and also a member of the church.
This is an opportune time to apply for land and churches are advised to engage the state assemblymen and even their chief ministers to explore this matter. In areas where there are several small churches, perhaps they can come together to apply for land. This is also a great way to demonstrate unity to the community.
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