DZULKIFLI Abdul Razak’s column, “Save our vanishing kampung” (NST, Dec 24) is a reminder of cultural history. He said: “The kampung serves as a reliable safety net, no matter how advanced the economy, provided it is kept intact.”
This is precisely what a Singaporean driver confessed to me when I was there. He said: “Here got money, you can live; if no money, that is the end. At least in Malaysia, still got the kampung culture and there is love. If we are serious, the destruction of kampung is also the destruction of love.”
Dzulkifli’s plea is pertinent so much so that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) has to register the kampung under the list of World Heritage Sites.
Why should the kampung disappear? Of this, I am keen to learn. The disappearance of the kampung will “rob Malaysia of its richness, diversity and cultural balance and living heritage”.
In the ardent attempt to create a “globalised” culture through urbanisation, liberalisation, socialisation, modernisation and development, the more pressing civilisational issues are hidden.
Moreover, there is the promotion of racist concepts, where its application has led to class struggles and violent reactions because it propounds that some are inferior to others.
The desire for conquest of foreign lands and bring their people under control is true as much as it is real. The conquest is to subdue their culture — that is the epitome of power, and the use of that knowledge to accede more power by embracing and parading the borrowed culture and practices as one’s own.
Culture, as we know it, plays a vital role in every society as it helps retain the historical memory over ages. It can be a part of the national culture. Culture has been and should be seen as an inherent contributor to the economic aspirations of a nation. Behind the economic activity there survives a culture that sustains the economic continuity.
For example, kampung have contributed to the concept of diversity, richness of human interactions and balance in relationships.
The Malay saying, biar mati anak, jangan mati adat, tells us how relevant culture is to a society. The expression is based on the need for culture to teach future generations on the good way to live. The culture will be “submerged” when the “kampung” is destroyed.
It is time we realised that culture has economic value and that in most cases, the destruction of culture actually leads to another economic dimension. The most prevailing example is Mao Tze Tung’s Cultural Revolution before industrialisation.
Perhaps it is time to start classifying the destruction of origins of human economic activity and its cultural underpinnings and cultural heritage like the kampung as a criminal act, or as cultural terrorism. Such cultural deprivation, which causes misery to the mind, has to be seen as a cultural invasion for economic gains.
Culture has an ancient origin, and its lifespan goes back thousands of years. Culture has a life of its own. It cannot be bought or destroyed by anyone, and those of the present can only be guardians before passing it on to the next generation.
To understand that culture has economic value, a typical case is that of the Kelantanese wayang kulit, which is registered as a business owned by a local non-Malay man. Is it innovation or cultural theft, since the Tok Dalang derives the economic benefit and others have been turned into consumers of that culture, who formerly were part of that enduring legend? Turning patrons of a culture into consumers generates money for one who becomes the service provider. There is economic gain in this, and skilful marketing around the globe will increase its wealth.
Hikayat Seri Rama is an ancient recollection of memories presented through wayang kulit. Such storytelling across the Nusantara is a way for people to learn of the good and evil characters, their adventures, plot and trickery. In that manner, they preserve their past. In a civilised society, this storytelling is about humanity and love. This civil liberty cannot be
usurped for economic gain, it can only be sustained.
To the Malays in Kelantan, this is not only cultural deprivation, but also economic deprivation in the long term. The perceptions of some Kelantanese resulting from this have political repercussions. They imply that it is the government that is preventing the Malays from any economic benefit from culture.
A community without a culture is like a ship without a mast or sail, especially when it is close to the shore. The ship can just drift away from the shore to forever remain lost in the open sea.
I have no answer for my Kelantanese friend who asked: “In China, the man reputed to be the inventor of Chinese art and culture through writing, hunting, trapping and fishing was Fu Hsi. This has never changed, so, why then should Hikayat Seri Rama belonging to the Malays of the Nusantara be changed?”
It’s not just my Kelantanese friend who is asking this question; in fact, most people of conquered colonies like the Middle East, Morocco, Egypt, Taiwan and India, in ways they best know, demand their identities be given back to them.
Based on this reality, the priority of Unesco should be to create a statement against cultural terrorism and theft for long-term economic benefits. The entrepreneurs should come from among the guardians of the authentic culture. And, Unesco certainly has a facilitating role to play.
n Mena Jeyaram, Subang Jaya, Selangor