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KOTA BARU: The government will introduce Cultural Diversity Day to instil the spirit of unity among Malaysians, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator P. Waytha Moorthy.

Waytha, who is in charge of national unity and social wellbeing, said the special celebration is expected to be held in March next year.

“Since becoming a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, I have been thinking about what should be done and the changes we should bring to instil unity among the various races.

“I think the Cultural Diversity Day will serve as a good platform to showcase Malaysia’s cultures and traditions.

“For example, the Tarian Asyik and Rebana Kerching may only be popular in Kelantan but I want them to be visible to all Malaysians so that we can learn more about our country’s culture,” he said.

Waytha said this after officiating the state-level ‘Karnival Explorasi Perpaduan Merdeka 2018’ at Pantai Sri Tujuk here today.

Present was Kelantan National Unity and Integration Department director Norwahidah Zinalibdin.

Waytha also praised the Kelantanese culture for being able to unite the people, saying it should serve as a model for other states to follow.

“Kelantanese culture is very unique and everyone regardless of race is able to speak the Kelantanese dialect well.

When I was having breakfast at a Chinese coffeeshop here this morning, I was impressed to see that 80 per cent of its customers are Malay.

“They managed to unite the people of Kelantan through food and this is a very different environment compared to the west coast.

By Nor Fazlina Abdul Rahim.

Read more @ /www.nst.com.my/news/government-public-policy/2018/09/409623/govt-introduce-cultural-diversity-day-says-waytha

IT has now passed 100 days for the Pakatan Harapan government since it replaced Barisan Nasional. A slew of reforms has been initiated to restructure the administration to conform to the principles of honesty, integrity, accountability and the rule of law

Measures taken target economic, financial and fiscal issues as well as weeding out corruption. It would be wishful thinking that these efforts would bear fruit within a hundred days.

Notwithstanding, the new government has failed to address a significant aspect of governance that deals with cultural and artistic policy. Perhaps arts and culture have the lowest priority in government planning as most politicians and high level civil servants are unaware of its significance in the development and wellbeing of the people and country. They usually dismiss it as mere entertainment while some politicians regard it as sinful.

In fact, cultural expressions reflect the soul and identity of a community or a nation. Both tangible and intangible artistic expressions permeate all aspects of our lives — from clothing, handbags, jewellery, cars, living space, music, dances and dramatic expressions to films and television.

There is a need for a concerted effort to create a holistic cultural and arts policy to replace the existing one which is based just on promoting cultural events and performances as addendum to the tourist industry.

As a result of this, our cultural and artistic products are substandard and we have never excelled in the various artistic expressions. This has also caused the neglect and demise of many forms of traditional artistic expressions. And the people have become that much poorer having lost their cultural and artistic identity and heritage.

The arts and culture are integral to education and industry both as aesthetic and functional ingredients not only in national physical and materialistic development but also as an emotional therapeutic element in the wellbeing of the people.

It needs to be reminded that arts and culture as part of the educative process play a significant role in the development of visual thinking that trains the mind to visualise objects and phenomena in their physical and abstract perspectives. Yet the arts are given minimal emphasis in our schools’ and universities’ curricula, which give priority to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects.

As both aesthetic and functional products, the arts and culture generate economic turnover as part of the creative industries that not only brings economic returns but equally important provides job opportunities. Unfortunately, the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry does not have qualified and thinking personnel to explore employment and revenue-generation aspects of the creative industry much less, the psychological and therapeutic perspectives.

Arts and culture have their own dynamism and make their presence felt through a variety of manifestations in various forms of expressions. They reflect an innate trait of human behavioural pattern that relates to life itself. To accommodate these needs, the related ministries need to plan and strategise three levels of cultural and artistic pursuits, namely, traditional, popular and haute culture (high culture).

Traditional culture has to be preserved and revitalised as our cultural heritage is fast disappearing due to the thrust of modern forms of alien cultural expressions. There is a need to re-educate the public to appreciate the beauty of classical traditional performing arts such as Makyong, Wayang Kulit, Joget Gamelan dance and other traditional dances.

This can only be done through a proper educative process to develop traditional practitioners and the infrastructure to accommodate the performances as well as a support base for arts and culture.

Popular culture is an imitation of western pop culture that appeals to the masses, especially the youths and teenagers and consists of pop concerts, heavy metal, modern dances and light musicals, which are the mainstay of modern artistic expressions with their own cult and fan groups. These youths need be guided to the artistry of these performances.

Haute culture or high culture, refers mainly to western classical music, dances (ballet and modern) and dramatic performances such as musicals and serious plays of universally known playwrights the likes of Shakespeare, Ibsen, Pirandello, Aristophanes as well as works by eminent local writers such as Noordin Hassan, Usman Awang, Syed Alwi, Dinsman, Kalam Hamidy and others. These haute culture performances appeal to the sophisticated and the elite of society.

All of these are markers, which designate a sophisticated society that appreciates the arts and is proud of its traditional cultural heritage as well as provides the youths and teens with the opportunities to appreciate and create popular artistic expressions.

There is, therefore, a need for the ministry to start thinking of these various aesthetic, philosophical and social and economic implications of arts and culture and not regard them as merely a form of mundane celebration.

By MOHAMED GHOUSE NASARUDDIN.

Read more @ https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2018/08/404958/holistic-cultural-and-arts-policy-needed

Hosiani James Jaimis, the new Sabah Unduk Ngadau flanked by Sherrylyn Jane Rannytho of Penampang (3rd right) and Vanessa Audrey Gilbert from Putatan.

AMID the skyscrapers and coastline of Surfers Paradise in Australia’s Gold Coast, one can spot a large surfboard with a digital clock, determinedly counting down.

The Commonwealth Games will descend this week onto the Gold Coast’s beaches, bringing with it the world’s best athletes and nagging questions of relevance, competitiveness and economic effect.

The multi-sport event has gathered various nations of the British Commonwealth every four years since 1930, barring a few wartime aberrations. It was originally known as the British Empire Games, hosting various combinations of countries, with Australia and Britain among the mainstays. The 2018 Games will draw athletes from 71 Commonwealth nations and territories who will compete in 275 events over 18 sports.

Despite the impending glow of an international audience, familiar concerns over the games’ substantial cost and dwindling significance have again come to the fore, this time in the Australian state of Queensland.

There is little doubt the Commonwealth represents a particular, if ageing, type of might — it still represents about a third of the world’s population. Set up in the mid-20th century as Britain allowed for the self-governance of many of its territories, the Commonwealth of Nations have no legal obligations to one another, but instead aim to further shared values like democracy and freedom of speech.

But, in a post-Brexit landscape, and with many countries shrinking further into isolationism, questions have been raised not only of the games’ relevance, but the relevance of the Commonwealth itself.

“The Commonwealth matters to me,” said Jacqui Gooding, a New Zealander who was visiting Surfers Paradise on vacation.

“The queen is our leader — I don’t want a president.”

Gooding’s husband, John, dismissed the idea that the games would be absent of sporting and political relevance.

“It’s about bringing all the nations of the Commonwealth together,” he said.

“It shows the power of sport in diplomacy, and the importance of the Commonwealth.”

Organisers on the Gold Coast said they expected the games to reach a global audience of 1.5 billion. For context, the 2014 World Cup had about 3.2 billion global viewers and the Rio Olympics had about 3.6 billion.

The mood of locals varied from enthusiasm to curiosity to, occasionally, eye-rolling frustration at construction and traffic delays.

Nick Atkins, who runs a co-working space on the Gold Coast, has been an advocate for attracting and retaining talent in the region. He said he was more excited about the government’s spending on infrastructure than the events themselves.

“For me, personally, I don’t know who the Commonwealth’s best javelin thrower is, or table tennis player or swimmer,” he said.

“But, there’s an undeniable positivity on the Gold Coast for it.”

Peter Beattie, a former premier of the state of Queensland, and the chairman of the Gold Coast Games, said that he empathised with those who had reservations about the event.

“I understand that there’s always a bit of cynicism: Is this the remnants of the Empire? Look, it came from the Empire Games, but its relevance and relationship with the Empire Games is very tenuous,” he said.

This year’s games, for the first time, will feature an equal gender split of events. Women will compete for the same number of me-dals as men, a feat that organisers said had not been replicated by any other major multi-sport international event, including the Olympics.

Beattisaid that the games would send a message about the advancement of women that he hoped the Olympics would emulate.

Others said the games presented athletes with a rare chance at higher competition like the Olympics and World Championships — and some athletes with perhaps the peak competition of their careers

“I just snuck into the Commonwealth Games. It was the first major team that I made, representing Australia — they have more relaxed standards,” said Steve Moneghetti, a retired Australian runner who eventually competed in four Olympic marathons.

“It’s a good stepping stone, and certainly for some athletes it will be the only multisport competition that they go to.”

It is easy to see why for certain nations these games may be just as watchable as the Olympics — there’s a far greater chance of seeing a fellow countryman win.

Medal count aside, host cities have faced increasing pressure in recent games to ensure that the economic effect of the event proves both positive and sustainable.

Last year, the South African city of Durban was stripped of the right to host the games in 2022, following a series of missed deadlines and financial shortcomings. The African continent has never hosted the games.

Before that, India’s 2010 Games were marred by accusations of substantial overspend and corruption.

The 2014 Games in Glasgow proved something of a litmus test for the economic and cultural credibility of the event

There, a large chunk of responsibility fell to an American, David Grevemberg, who had previously been part of a team that secured an agreement that would require Olympic cities to also host the Paralympics.

“Post India, we had a brand that’s relevance was being questioned,” said Grevemberg, who today is the chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation.

By ADAM BAIDAWI.

Read more @ https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2018/04/353305/commonwealth-games-it-still-relevant