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.
It is time that the ministry produced a clear direction in artistic practices and education. A comprehensive cultural policy should be developed by engaging with other ministries such as education, youth and sports as well as the Finance Ministry — to develop a vibrant, sophisticated arts and culture scene that serves both the rural and cosmopolitan public.
The writer is an emeritus professor at the Centre for Policy Research and International Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang