Cultural event must become the important component of tourism promotion in order to put Sarawak in the world tourism map. The State has a very colorful history with lots of extraordinary events taking place since the 15th century. Besides, the State has about 30 ethnic groups, each with its own customs and traditions and religious beliefs that have helped to enrich its heritage and culture.
Sarawak, which is almost a third of the total size of the country, was once part of the Sultanate of Brunei. Later it was ceded to James Brooke, a British adventurer, who succeeded to get himself acclaimed as the white Rajah. Though he was not a descendent of the Rajah but the local people adopted him as their Rajah.
During the Second World War the State was under the Japanese occupation for at least three and half years. After the war, the territory was ceded by the third White Rajah to the British Colonial Administration to become a colony of Great Britain.
Generally, the visitors have the inclination to study more about the varied customs and traditions of the people. For example, tourists are interested to know how the local people live and practice their recreation and share the joy of cultural activities.
In this respect, Malaysian Tourism Board or Borneo Convention Bureau could organize a comprehensive marketing package as a way to introduce events like Baram Regatta, Kuching Regatta, Pesta Benak, Pesta Kaul or any others to the international market. Meanwhile, efforts must also be made locally to further upgrade the events for the purpose.
Obviously, Sarawak must find ways to share the rich local culture with other people. As the state becomes more accessible by land, air and sea, it has to pursue a policy to popularize the rich local culture to the wider audience.
The Baram regatta, for example, can trace its root to the rule of White Rajah. The event helps to showcase the rich and colorful culture of the Orang Ulu community. Members of the community normally come down to Marudi in big boats, sometimes with 60 paddlers. The boats are well decorated with local carvings, motifs and designs to make them very attractive to see.
Normally, they come on their traditional costumes complete with decorative headgears and long earrings for ladies. They are very attractive to see especially among the visitors. Normally, Baram regatta, which is being held one in three years, creates a unique air of festivity that cannot be found elsewhere in the world.
The State is holding Pesta Benak ( tidal bore festival) in a big way at Sri Aman because no other places have the same event. It is known to be one of the top five in the world. It is a natural phenomenon that can rarely be seen in other parts of the country.
Of course, the people, while watching tidal waves, expect to see people riding on the waves like those in Hawaii. The Benak in Sri Aman can be made more attractive if visitors can see surfers riding on the waves. In this respect, it is advisable for local people to be trained to ride on high waves to make it even more interesting as compared with those in other places. A French man had successfully ridden on the waves and found lots of fun in doing so. Hence, efforts should be made to train local people in the next one to three years to ride on the tidal waves to make the festival more attractive.
Obviously, steps must be taken to develop the infrastructure and provide the necessary facilities for the people to watch the tidal waves. Besides, side activities must also be organized as any major event must be accompanied by side activities in order to create air of festivity in the town.
The place must be made more comfortable to encourage more people to come and watch the phenomenon, which should be made the main attraction for the people to come to Sri Aman.
When Sarawak joined the Federation of Malaysia on September 16,1963, the people realized that they had differences in religion, ethnicity, language and other backgrounds. However, over the years in the struggle for nation building the people have been able to forge similar interests to become the common rights. The people have been able to agree on a common language that can link all communities regardless of whether it is the Orang Ulu community in Ulu Baram, the Bidayuh community in Bau or the Kadazan/Dusun in in Keningau. More and more Federal Ministers in Semenanjung Malaysia begin to understand, through their frequent visits to Sarawak, that the local people have been practicing the spirit of 1Malaysia as being pioneered by the Prime Minister, Dato Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Abdul Razak . They are able to understand that the Spirit of 1Malaysia has a very noble objective in the evolution towards building a strong and progressive Malaysian society towards the year 2020 and beyond.
The efforts to strengthen national solidarity can be expedited through the development of the economy for the country to become more progressive. It will help the people to glorify Merdeka that has been able to give them progress and advancement during the last 50 years. Obviously, we must continue to take necessary steps to move in one direction in the true spirit of 1Malaysia and 1nationality that can embrace all the customs and traditions of various ethnic groups and other differences in the struggle for nation-building.
In Sarawak, we likened the various ethnic groups to rivers, each with different color, but as they flow to mouth they become one color only. We are very motivated by the concept of where the rivers meet or the concept of confluence of culture, which we have been trying to promote among the people. We equate our struggle for nation building to the flow of the water, with different colors, some like chocolate, red and other colors as the clean water get mixed with muddy ones from tributaries in the Ulu to the main river. As the water flows further down to the sea, the colors become one only. Though the process takes time but after 50 years, we have no reason not to accelerate the process of promoting unity and solidarity among ourselves in the true spirit of 1Malaysia. We have been able to transform the country through the process of development from the situation of poverty to a sufficiently rich country. We are emerging as one of the most successful developing countries in this region, if not the world.
The implementation of the 10th Malaysia Plan represents one of the initiatives of the Federal Government to raise the levels of income of the people from the medium income to high income economy, which will be able to uplift the standard of living of the people. It will be able to create more high paying jobs for people, who have good qualification, technical skills and professional experience.
The State has undergone the overall development and not just economic development since the very beginning. The State Government has been able to anticipate that it must develop the people as the real engine of growth. In this regards, the people have been encouraged to equip themselves with all kinds of skills to enable them to get better rewards from their jobs. In the new era of development, the people must endeavor to preserve their customs, traditions and heritage in order to strengthen their identity. This becomes a real challenge in the globalised world, which is experiencing very fast changes to such an extent that the word change has become idolized by the people.
However, behind change, we can see a lot of people that have got lost in their journey towards the future. Obviously, they cannot understand what to defend as important features of their identity because of ignorance of their own culture.
benuasains
*Photos Source:
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