By Mohamed Ghouse Nasuruddin

While the peninsula states of Malaysia are losing or have lost a huge portion of its traditional artistic expressions such as dance, music and dramatic plays, Sarawak, though facing an onslaught of modernisation, on the other hand still has a vibrant arts tradition.

Its dances, music and traditional crafts, which serve both ritualistic and secular functions, are an integral part of the various rite de passage (rite of passage) and the worship of ancestral spirits as well as the celebrations of both secular and religious occasions.

Granted that modernisation and westernisation have taken its toll even in Sarawak’s cultural heritage, it has still been able to sustain music and dance performances as a component of official celebrations, albeit abridged, and as a tourist attraction.

The focus of this tourist promotion is the Sarawak Cultural Village in Santubung, Kuching. Located at Damai Santubung with the Gunung Santubung in the background and the panoramic South China Sea as its frontage, it is truly a picturesque setting for showcasing in a microcosm the traditional ethnic/tribal architecture (houses and long houses), crafts, music and dances.

But all is not well in paradise. A closer look at the cultural/artistic vitals of the village leaves one with a different impression. The traditional houses are in various states of disrepair, such as rumah Iban, Orang Ulu, Melanau. The boardwalk that circumambulates the perimeter of the village around the lake is in dire need of repair.

The original ambience of the village as pristine surroundings of tribal community has been desecrated by creating spaces to accommodate the Rainforest Music Festival. New performance spaces such as the huge hall and several open-air stages circulating an open, desolate ground for the use of the festival performers and audience has affected the traditional rainforest enclave sacrificing its pristine ambience for one of modernised incongruity.

But the facility that is most in need of repair is the auditorium, which is the part of the inaugural building complex located at the entrance of the Cultural Village.

Traditional music and dances of Sarawak are performed for domestic and international tourists twice daily in this dilapidated auditorium. It was a manageable facility when I performed in it twenty years ago. Just last month in October, I renewed my acquaintance with the Cultural Village as a guest dancer performing a solo Bharatanatyam dance as part of the Cultural Village performance.

It was quite a harrowing experience to perform on the stage. It is a wonder how the dancers and musicians have performed in such a state. For starters, the backstage area and the corridors to access the stage left and stage right areas are in need of repairs. The dancers and musicians negotiate these passages more as a reflex action rather than visual sighting. One needs to be careful to avoid uneven floorboards; some of these jut out dangerously. If that is not bad enough, the stage floor has holes and bumps covered with tape and carpets. It poses a danger especially for dancers who may twist their ankles or break their legs if they accidentally step into these holes dotting the stage.

The lighting system is archaic with half of the lamps out of commission. The upstage area is cluttered with music instruments and bamboo structures and other stage paraphernalia that could pose a hazard to dancers, musicians and stagehands.

It is unfortunate that the Sarawak authorities have scant regard for the welfare and safety of its dancers and musicians with regard to performance space facilities. Perhaps in operating it as a commercial enterprise for profit rather than to show the pride and beauty of the artistic tradition, they have overlooked basic performance needs that would normally take priority over all others.

The Sarawak Cultural Village is no longer the organic living museum of the traditional arts that prides itself in showcasing the pristine tribal and ethnic arts and culture of Sarawak. It has become a commercial venue for social and corporate events as well as the Rainforest Music Festival.

As a result, it has been physically and artistically mutilated. For example, a huge swath of open ground has been cleared by mowing down pristine and regal rainforest trees just for the weeklong annual Rainforest Music Festival and left bare and unattended for the rest of the year, causing erosion and silting.

Such an uncaring attitude is also reflected in the mechanistic execution of traditional dances and music unlike the time of Ramli Ali, the resident choreographer for much of the Cultural Village’s existence. I was part of the troupe at that time as a guest dancer when the dancers and musicians performed with such exuberance, gusto and passion and pride.

Modernisation and an uncaring attitude towards the arts has adversely affected it from being a celebration of the psyche and emotion of the tribal and ethnic communities to nothing more than a commercial product. This will undoubtedly hasten the demise of the aesthetic finesse and spirituality of Sarawak’s traditional dances and music.

Such malaise is not only confined to Sarawak but also to the rest of the country where agencies that are supposed to conserve, preserve and enhance the performing arts — music, dance and theatre — have instead mutilated and bastardised them. They have sacrificed the ethos and integrity of the performing arts heritage to pander to officialdom. There is no longer any passionate arts aficionado and manager such as Encik Supiat Mukri who was the Director-General of the then Kompleks Budaya Negara (National Cultural Complex, popularly known as KBN), which later became the National Theatre.

Currently, officials charged with the development of the performing arts are not only ignorant but are more concerned with pandering to officialdom to the extent of sacrificing not only the integrity of traditional art forms but also contributing to its eventual demise to be replaced with pseudo soulless touristic products.

The arts are an integral ingredient in our lives despite the emphasis on the sciences, which reflect the current preoccupation of concentrating on materialism to the exclusion of disregarding artistic sensibilities. Rather, there should be implemented a harmonious balance between the aesthetic and the scientific.

Before we lose the aesthetic sentiments that contribute towards the sanctity of our lives, we need to take measures to preserve, conserve and reintegrate them as integral and respected parts of our existence.

Modernisation and westernisation are fast eroding the foundations of our cultural and artistic heritage including those of Sarawak. Nevertheless, Sarawak still relatively has intact its tribal and ethnic artistic and spiritual expressions in the various longhouse settlements and also as showcased in the Sarawak Cultural Village. These must be preserved at all costs because they not only belong to the people of Sarawak but to all Malaysians and we take pride in its vibrancy and proliferation.

Mohamed Ghouse Nasuruddin is Emeritus Professor of the School of Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang.

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