Electronic Proceedings - United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

Educating the nation in space law and policy first needs enthusiasm and interest. This isto ensure that a layman knows what space law is all about, aside from developing the field toa higher level, aimed at university education or special interests. In parallel to developingspecialists, mass education starting from primary education is very important to give youngpeople some knowledge about space and stars. Initiating exhibitions, promotions andcompetitions can also achieve this purpose. At a higher level, workshops and seminars can beset in a concerted effort to introduce the public to space law and policy, as well as ensuringadequate access to reference materials nationwide. On a more advanced level, it is imperativethat education in law and regulations be established.In my personal humble opinion, it is high time to have suitable curricula in schools anduniversities that include education in space law and the policies behind it, in addition to spacescience and technology. We hope that by educating the whole nation in the importance of thisfield of law, we can build up a space-faring nation for future development.There are three major applications of space activities in Malaysia: telecommunications;broadcasting; and remote sensing. Both MEASAT-1 and MEASAT-2 are under the operationof BINARIANG, a company licensed to operate telecommunications services under thesupervision of the Communication Commission. Whereas in the field of broadcasting,ASTRO was given a licence to operate under the supervision of the Ministry of Information.Both activities regarding telecommunications and broadcasting were licensed for frequenciesgranted by the Communication and Multimedia Commission, and the end-users of theseapplications include the public, military, navigation, aviation, and so on.The Malaysian Centre for Remote Sensing or ‘MACRES’, coordinates another equallyimportant application, remote sensing. The use of remote sensing data is very important toobtain information about the environment, mapping, land mining and weather forecasting, toname a few areas. This centre was given the role to act by the Ministry of Scie nce,Technology and Environment, while the end-users for this application include manygovernment agencies, for example the Meteorological Department, the Department ofEnvironment, the Fisheries Department and the Forestry Department.It is obvious that space activities in Malaysia deal with a number of cross-sectoral issues,and all of these applications already have laws or policies regulating them. A country that isin a preparatory stage of developing new laws needs specialists in that area who are wellversed in space law and related issues. In order to have these specialists, many individualshave to be given the opportunity to be involved directly with the development of internationalspace law in the United Nations, especially within the Office for Outer Space Affairs, theInternational Institute of Space Law as well as in other notable space-faring countries.Participation in workshops and seminars as well as meetings is of great importance.Assistance is needed from eminent space jurists and technical experts, as well as informationon new issues progressing in the United Nations.Policies of the Malaysian Government also need to be in line with the existing space lawpolicies applicable to every State Party to the Treaties. Likewise, institutio ns must prepare todevelop papers informing the government of the importance of these treaties, especially tocover the space activities of the nation. Information and introductions to foreign laws thathave already come into force in various countries would also be very useful in view of thefact that by studying foreign practices, Malaysian domestic laws can be further improved.The National Space Agency, which is under the Ministry of Science, Technology andEnvironment, aims to coordinate Malaysia’s requirements in aerospace and satellitetechnology. It has also been entrusted with the tasks of identifying necessary infrastructure,formulating a national space policy, and planning space and satellite programmes. The taskshandled by the Agency not only include supervision of space activities in Malaysia, but alsoproviding a platform for discussion on legal provisions in order to develop laws and policies,408