MalaysiaGIS.com

Source: The Star (page 3)

Inclement weather means his "topo" (short for topography) team can't do their field work and are behind schedule.

More importantly, it's delaying the completion of the survey of the last stretch of Malaysian-Thai border yet to be officially demarcated.

The survey and demarcation of the border along Perak, Perlis and Kedah was finalised in 1985. Now all that remains is the Golok River - 95km of sometimes crystal-clear, sometimes murky green water - that originates in the hills of the Jeli forest reserve and ends at the town of Pengkalan Kubor, the last transit point before pouring out into the South China Sea.

Why the river has been left to the last is simply because it is the hardest part of the Malaysian-Thai border to demarcate.

In fact, the Malaysian-Thailand Land Boundary Committee (LBC) had to hold several meetings over the years to work out the terms of reference and a master plan.

The trouble with river boundaries is that unlike those found on terra firma, they have a tendency to shift over time, to reroute according to variables in the weather.

A reconnaissance of the Golok River in 1977 proved this when it revealed that 118.6ha of land at various points along the river had been affected by a change in the river's course, resulting in some areas considered Malaysian territory now falling onto the Thai side and vice versa.

Once this new survey is completed, however, even if the river were to change course again in the future, the boundary line will remain fixed.

Everything about this survey is complicated, not least of which is the fact that two teams are responsible for the survey - one from Malaysia's Survey and Mapping Department and the other from the Royal Thai Survey Department, a branch of the Thai military.

"It's part of the terms of reference agreed upon at last year's meeting of the boundary committee," explains Mohammed Yunus, co-project director for the demarcation and survey of the Golok River. "Everything must be checked and counterchecked by both sides before any agreement can be signed."

This two-of-everything system extends to operational bases, survey equipment, general workers, boats and drivers.

Such working conditions, though are nothing new for the surveyors in question. The same modus operandi applied in previous border surveys, and according to Sufian, who's been doing border surveys since 1996, "working with the Thais is not a problem."

While the lingua franca for the Golok River survey is English, Suffian and his colleague, Alakaskaran Muniandy, the two most senior officers on the Malaysian team, both speak a smattering of Thai. It comes from years of working along the border.

The respect the Malaysian team shows towards their Thai counterparts appears to be mutual.

"We've spent many days camping together in the jungle and know each other very well," says Lieutenant Colonel Jatoront Saengsorn, in explaining the easy rapport between the two teams, despite the cultural differences and the fact that one is a civilian crew and the other a military one.

With the communist threat neutralised long ago, the Malaysian-Thai border is largely regarded as safe.

The survey, which began last November is still very much in the preliminary stages, with the two teams completing the levelling work (measuring the height of the ground) and vertical control network along the Golok River just last week.

An aerial survey is also being carried out, of which about one-third has been completed on the Malaysian side. But that too has been hampered by the rain.

The first boundary pillar in Jeli forest reserve laid by the British after signing the 1909 treaty.

All of which makes the official estimate, that the survey would wrap up in three years, unrealistic.

Both Suffian and Songsaern agree that it's more likely to be four or five years.

Not just because of the weather.

Every time there is a dispute, we will have to stop work, or move to another area. Then meetings and more meetings at the higher level will have to be held in order to resolve the disagreement," says Suffian.

"So far there've have been no problems as we're still in the early stages of the survey. The disputes will arise later during the hydrographic survey."

The hydrographic survey is when the surveyors actually get out onto the water and using a boat equipped with echo sounding, determine the thalweg - the deepest part of the river and the point which marks the dividing line between the two countries.

Suffian is of the opinion that since the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909, small islands have probably developed in the river, and the disputes will be over which side of the island the demarcation point should be.

Another trouble spot is the Jeli area where the source of the Golok River lies - both sides can't quite agree over where exactly the river begins.

To get around this, the teams have begun work at the mouth of the river, at Pengkalan Kubor, and are working their way westwards, in the hope that, as Alakaskaran puts it, "by the time we get to Jeli, the authorities would have managed to come to an agreement."

Malaysia's border survey team is based in Kampung Bagus, a village close to Rantau Panjang. Most beds are makeshift - several planks hammered together - while the living room in the officers' house is devoid of furniture save for a couple of outboard motors.

Their office is no less spartan. A solitary typewriter is the most hi-tech piece of gadgetry in sight. That and a calculator.

By contrast, the Thai office just across the border in the town of Golok has all the equipment one would expect of a professional outfit, including computers and the software to make the computations for the survey and the hand-held global positioning system.

Despite the lack of equipment, the Malaysians still manage with a little help from the Thais.

In this age of globalisation and when talk of a borderless world is rife, one would think borders are less important than in the days when the size of one's territory was a measure of one's power.

But officialdom, even today, are apt to take the business of borders very, very seriously.

"In case any legal issues arise in the future between the two countries, at least we'll have an agreement to fall back on," explains Prof Dato Nik mohd Zain Nik Yusof, secretary-general of the Land and Co-operative Development Ministry and chairman of the Malaysia-Thailand Land Boundary Committee.

"Countries are just like ordinary landowners, we need to have something in writing to protect our interests.

"We also need to finalise the Malaysian border area to make it easier to enforce the law. Right now we have have illegal immigrants and smugglers using the Golok River to bring in drugs, firearms and other contraband. Prosecuting them becomes a problem when we aren't sure where exactly the border is."

National security aside, the main reason why border surveys like the one presently being carried out at the Golok River are so important boils down to national pride.