Voodoo Vince

Indonesians picket Malaysia embassy in dance row

JAKARTA - ABOUT 1,000 Indonesians dressed in colourful traditional costumes staged a protest outside the Malaysian embassy on Thursday accusing Kuala Lumpur of promoting an Indonesian dance form as its own.

The dispute over the mask dance comes shortly after a folk song used in Malaysia's 'Truly Asia' tourism campaign struck a discordant note among many Indonesians who believe the tune belongs to their country.

The protesters on Thursday said Malaysia was promoting a Javanese mask dance, known as Reog Ponorogo, as its traditional art in its tourism campaign.

Malaysia's Culture and Arts and Heritage Ministry is using a traditional Malay dance called Barongan in its tourism advertisements, which is similar to the Indonesian dance featuring men wearing enormous tiger heads and peacock feather masks, accompanied by acrobats.

The rally outside the embassy in Jakarta looked more like a carnival than a protest, with participants dressed in traditional costumes performing the Reog dance.

'Malaysia thief!' read posters carried by the protesters.

Malaysian ambassador Zainal Abidin Zain told the protestors that 'Malaysia never claimed that Barongan originated from our country'.

But some Indonesians have launched an anti-Malaysia campaign, producing T-shirts emblazoned with the word Malingsia (Thief of Asia) in a parody of Malaysia's tourism campaign logo.

Indonesia and Malaysia share cultural and religious ties and most people speak Malay and practise Islam, but there has been deep resentment over alleged poor treatment of Indonesian labourers and domestic workers in the neigbouring country.

Last month Indonesian lodged a diplomatic protest after members of the Malaysian security force briefly detained a diplomat's wife, mistaking her for an illegal immigrant, and forcibly broke into a student's home. -- REUTERS

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2...ry_181701.html

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People don't plan to fail... They fail to plan.

Miss QQ

This is so funny... First there is the Satay War with Singapore and now this...

Life is full of unexpected surprises

nicoleangp

Thief of Asia? LOL...

thief calling thief?

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Voodoo Vince

No. It's pot calling the kettle black.

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People don't plan to fail... They fail to plan.

Yvonne_Lim

Is there a Satay War with Singapore?

id_peace

it seems that malaysia is getting into more trouble internally and externally.

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nicoleangp

ai yo... u should support your own country wat....

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Voodoo Vince

M'sia drops Indon dances from tourism campaign after protests

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA will drop two dances that originated in Indonesia from its overseas tourism campaigns following protests from the neighbouring country, officials and a report said on Tuesday.

Activists demonstrated outside the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta last week, slamming Kuala Lumpur for promoting Indonesia's traditional Barongan masked dance as part of Malaysian culture in its tourism campaigns, the national Bernama news agency said.

It quoted Tourism Minister Adnan Mansor as saying that the Indonesian government also sent him letters pointing out that the Endang dance performed recently by a Malaysian group in Japan originated in Indonesia.

'We will stop using the two dances in our tourism promotion program,' a Tourism Ministry official said.

The two dances are popular in parts of Malaysia which have close cultural links with Indonesia.

The official, who declined to be named because of ministry policy, said cultural officers from the two countries will meet to resolve the issue to prevent it from sparking a diplomatic row.

The two countries share Islam as their main religion and have similar national languages. But they also have a history of testy relations.

In October, Indonesia accused Malaysia of stealing a Malay folk song - 'Rasa Sayang' or 'Feeling of Love' - as the theme song for its overseas tourism promotions. Jakarta said it may sue Kuala Lumpur for breach of copyright.

Malaysia rejected the allegation, saying the song has origins in both countries and doesn't belong solely to Indonesia.

Indonesian lawmakers have also accused Malaysia of taking credit for other traditional Indonesian arts such as batik fabrics and the shadow puppet theater. -- AP


http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2...ry_183326.html

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People don't plan to fail... They fail to plan.

Voodoo Vince

I will only support if the action is right. Stealing is not right.

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People don't plan to fail... They fail to plan.

Twinkle

They are really making themselves a laughing stock.

nicoleangp

Everyone knows that stealing is wrong and nobody is asking you to support theft.... It's just that I think the problem with many Malaysian (at least, the ones that I know who lives in Singapore) is they are more or less anti-Malaysia... I'm not targeting anyone here, I'm just stating this in general... I have a lot of Malaysian friends here and I can see that they are not always on their country side when things happened in their country, especially such dispute between the two countries arise... let's not talk about whether it is true that Malaysia did "steal" the dance row or the folk songs from Indonesia coz it's quite debatable since these two countries are so closely linked in historical and cultural background, their first re-action will most likely be "ya, Malaysia is the thief"... I don't think Malaysian is very 爱国, do ya? I mean, giving the fact that the crime rate is so high in Malaysia now, u still hear Malaysian saying, "it's like that one lah Malaysia, wat to do?" I'm thinking, come on, it's your country, you gotta do something, right? No offense, really I mean I like Malaysia and their people, Malaysian are good people, hardworking and dependable, just that I don't find much patriotism in them... peace...

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Voodoo Vince