THE tourism industry contributes a significant amount to our gross national income.
It is a big hospitality business which generates numerous economic spinoffs that create employment for skilled and unskilled workers.
The Tourism, Culture and Arts Ministry promotes the nation’s natural and man-made tangible and intangible assets to attract tourists from all over the world.
Malaysia is rich in natural landscapes, archaeological sites and modern architecture, food, traditional and modern entertainment.
While the peninsula emphasises urban tourism products, such as food, entertainment, modern architecture and pristine beaches, Sabah and Sarawak promote eco-tourism products such as the world-renowned Mulu caves, the Pinnacles, the mountains, rainforests as well as the world-famous dive site at Sipadan Island.
These states have the traditional attractions of tribal culture manifested in dances, music and handicraft.
While this cultural heritage is almost obliterated in Peninsular Malaysia, it is still vibrant in Sabah and Sarawak.
However, they have lost their traditional vibrancy as a result of changes in lifestyle, beliefs and functional applications. Modernisation changes the pace and sensitivity of living, eschewing the traditional rhythm of life.
Once the religious ecosystem that sustains them is eroded, they lose their relevancy as an integral part of the community’s ceremonies.
As a result, their performance frequency is adversely affected.
If no corrective measures are taken, these cultural expressions of dance and music, which are already declining, will lapse into oblivion.
The ministry resurrects these dying traditional arts through various projects that include research and documentation, performance workshops, formal and informal educational programmes, conferences and seminars.
In this manner the ministry addresses both the thinking and making of traditional cultural expressions.
But at the same time, it changes the traditional cultural landscape by encouraging tourist-compliant cultural products that are packaged and restructured to suit the tourist temperament.
Traditional dances and music are revamped to cater for the time-pressured tourists who are interested only in seeing a smorgasbord of cultural products.
Thus, the dances are taken out of their traditional context and performed as theatrical presentations in auditoriums, restaurants and malls in the capitals and major cities, except in the east coast states of Peninsular Malaysia, which restrict such performances.
In Sabah and Sarawak, traditional tribal dances are still performed, though sparingly.
Changing lifestyles and erosion of traditional beliefs have affected the relevancy of ritualistic ceremonies and therefore restricted the performances in their original setting.
But as a result of the demand from the tourism industry, these traditional dances and music have gravitated to the urban enclave to serve tourists’ needs.
In Sabah, for example, tourists both local and foreign can catch performances of traditional dances at several seafood restaurants in and around Kota Kinabalu.
In addition, a mall by the waterfront provides free daily performances of traditional dance at two-hourly intervals starting at 2pm.
However, the dances are limited to those with spectacular movements and beautiful costumes, such as the Mengilok, Sumazau and Angalang Magunatip.
These dances, however, have been revamped as a theatrical rather than a ritualistic performance.
The choreography — movements and floor patterns — have been restructured to conform to the space and time restrictions.
Then there is the added element of gimmicks to attract the audience’s attention and participation.
However, the new setting is not conducive to evoke the ritualistic and religious spirit of the dances.
From the purist’s and connoisseur’s perspective, the tourist industry has in a way adversely affected the originality of these traditional dances.
On the other hand, the tourism industry has provided a lifeline to these endangered dance expressions.
In addition, it generates employment for performers besides economic spin-offs.
It is imperative that the dual function of the ministry should interact synergistically.
While the tourism portfolio purveys cultural products to generate revenue, the culture portfolio must temper these solely economic considerations with the need to preserve purity and authenticity.
Both portfolios of the ministry must work in tandem not only to promote a revenue-generating cultural imagery but also to sustain artistic and aesthetic integrity.
The writer is lecturer at the Centre for Policy Research and International Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times