It is natural for people everywhere to be proud of who they are, where they live and the food they eat, but no one should claim “mine is better than yours”, as these are
subjective.
In seeking popularity, selfish politicians and pseudo-politicians champion race, religion and language by condemning others, as people overwhelmed by emotions are no longer rational and turn blind
supporters.
Those who are truly proud of their race, religion and language are focused on finding ways to help their own community, which require a lot of hard work and sincerity. For example, those who are truly religious treat race as inconsequential, unlike uncouth
politicians.
Those who love our national language should set up classes for millions of foreign workers in our country to learn Malay formally. If this was started decades ago, Malay would be commonly spoken in many South Asian countries where these workers came from.
When it comes to arts and culture, there are no borders since time immemorial. The fact that Malaysia lies exposed between East Asia and West/South Asia had enriched the Malay language and culture over the millennia.
I grew up in the era when television was introduced to Malaysia in 1963 and many of the black and white movies were filmed between 1948 and 1955, with the iconic P Ramlee acting in 27 of them. The rustic scenes are nostalgic and etched permanently on my mind.
My mother was a school teacher after the Second World War and she taught in a Chinese school in Pandamaran, Port Klang. One of her colleagues was a Malay lady with a straight back, always dressed in a sarong kabaya and looking immaculate.
Although it was more than six decades ago, I could still remember the compliments showered upon her by other teachers. Later, I studied in English primary and secondary schools, where students mixed with those they like to play with, never by race or religion.
Malay, under the old spelling until it was changed in 1972, was easy for me to learn and I scored higher marks than my Malay classmates in primary school. But my talent in music was close to zero, unlike Tracy Wong, who has been making waves in North America.
Wong has a doctorate in Musical Arts (choral conducting) and is also a pianist, composer and music educator. Prior to 2015, she was leading the Kuala Lumpur children’s choir group, Harmonix youth choir group and was an assistant head of Youth Circle of Arts.
She later joined the Hamilton Children’s Choir in Toronto, Canada and taught the children there to sing traditional Malay songs, including performing the Wau Bulan, a traditional Malay song and dikir barat.
I was brought to tears watching the May 2018 video of Wau Bulan – Hamilton Children’s Choir https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=973KgWkwctw for
several reasons.
A true Malaysian who could not hone her arts back home had to relocate to the opposite side of the globe, making Malaysia’s loss as Canada’s gain. While Kelantan, the home of dikir barat and bent on banning it, people alien to Malay culture are eager to embrace it.
In March 2017, the Hamilton Children’s Choir performed the Wau Bulan in the United States, and the audience comprised renowned musicians, conductors, performers and choir groups around the world.
Later, music conductors in the United States and Canada requested Wong to share and teach performing the Wau Bulan, which together with the dikir barat had a mesmerising effect on the audience.
Kudos to the Canadian children for taking several months to learn and master the language, style and basic tone of the song, and dance movements of dikir barat. Wong deserves accolade for making sure their pronunciation was accurate, and for demonstrating and explaining the meaning of each dance
movement.
At the home front, founder and director of Pusaka (a traditional arts and culture NGO) Eddin Khoo deserves special mention. His father is none other than the redoubtable Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Dato` Dr. Khoo Kay Kim, a Baba Chinese. Edin’s mother is of Sri Lankan descent and he was raised by a Malay nanny, studied Islamic thought and philosophy in university.
Since it was founded in 2002, Pusaka has been researching and documenting performing arts, as well as organising shows and talks around the country, working with seasoned performers to make sure everything is authentic and that the arts get passed on to the next
generation.
They included traditional cultural performances such as mak yong, wayang kulit, main puteri and dikir barat, which are banned by the Kelantan government, prompting the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights Karima Bennoune calling in 2017 for the ban be lifted.
She said these art forms with rich traditions should be celebrated and appreciated as they were among the oldest performing arts in the world. Indeed, diversities in arts and culture should be embraced by all Malaysians and not sanitised in the name of religion for political control.
While religions are universal and race inconsequential, we are identified by our arts and culture. Losing them, which have taken hundreds of years to form, mean losing part of our identity. What we need are real champions to promote our arts and culture within our country and abroad. – By Y S Chan
