Dear Editor,
Advancement in civilization can be measured by the degree of certainty of the tenure of the citizens. And no fixture contributes more to the foundation of this certainty than land. It is the first thing any society has to agree on. Food, clothing and shelter can be individual concerns, but as soon as people began to live in landed, non-nomadic society, dispute arose where there was no land law; might became right, and progress ceased.
The common feature of the earliest civilizations in recorded history was the meticulous land registration records. Indeed it was the raison d’être of government (the “fons et origo”, to use one of the late Mr Burnham’s phrases), the domesticator of barbarians, a sine qua non without which there would be more wars and bloodshed than we could survive. The Deeds Registry and land registration archives and order are even more important than the other historical and cultural archives.
I feel I must indulge in these repetitious repetitions to restate what should be obvious to educated people because Mr Leon O Rockcliffe seems to be repeating himself in vain. This is to let the government know that there are others who share Mr Rockcliffe’s concerns and are grateful to him for keeping this matter in the public eye.
Additionally, as a material scientist of long standing, I can say that digitization is good, but under no circumstances must the present records be allowed to deteriorate or be unfindable in disorder. For computerization requires material servers to store information, wherever in the world that may take place. And while the new technologies of perovskites and qubits hold much promise, they are yet to be commercially constructed, much less stand the test of time. Paper technology, on the other hand, has been shown to last 300 years. (They started clearing out Isaac Newton’s office at Cambridge University in the 1990s and might still be translating his voluminous writings.)
As to the competence of the staff, I repeat a suggestion I first made in these letter columns over twenty years ago. Use expertise like Mr Rockcliffe’s to provide training, examination, and apprenticeship while he is still around and able. Increase in salary should only be justified by deliverable public service.
Yours faithfully,
Alfred Bhulai
