EVENTS THAT TRANSGRESS BOUNDARIES

by Tan Sri Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman
former Managing Director of Malaysia Airlines

While we welcome every effort to promote Malaysia through the various activities and events, many find it rather confusing when these events transgressed other boundaries.

For instance, the Colours of Malaysia, the Pesta Air and the Chelsea Flower Show all should have been organised and promoted by the former Ministry of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage and the present Ministry of Agriculture, Horticulture and Agrotourism, respectively.

The Colours of Malaysia has always been a cultural representation of the country’s rich multi-racial communities through songs, dances and cuisine. This celebration is also to highlight the various cultural differences of the 13 States in Malaysia.

But the irony is, “Since it is a cultural event, wouldn’t it be appropriate if it were to be placed under the purview of the former Ministry of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage? Reason being, such a ministry was well-positioned as the proper custodian or gatekeeper to promote the various cultures of Malaysia.

Furthermore, the venue for the Colours of Malaysia has always been an issue. Sometimes, it is staged in a stadium and sometimes it is portrayed as a street parade spanning from Dataran Merdeka to Jalan Raja Laut and Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman. The decision changes each time Malaysia receives a new tourism minister.

The changing of venues must indeed incur heavy costs. Quite frankly, one does not have to look far to realise that staging the Colours of Malaysia as a street parade could easily incur higher costs than hosting the same event in a stadium. One wonders just how much of this cost really goes down to the infrastructure, props or the site preparation (no such costs are required if it is staged in a stadium).

Of late, the Tourism Ministry has been subscribing to the practice of scrapping good events and replacing it with other “unrelated” ones without any proper study or market feedback.

One really wonders, “Whatever happened to the Pesta Air Malaysa?” Instead, we find ourselves promoting a new product. The Chelsea Flower Show has raised a few eyebrows in the industry. Some critics are asking ”Why are we into it?”

No doubt Malaysia managed to secure a gold medal in the recent Chelsea Flower Show after spending RM2 million for the sophisticated landscaping and floral arrangements by an ethnobotanist, James Wong. But what the ministry failed to realise is that Malaysia’s recent participation has raised a high level of expectancy on our parks and gardens.

Having said that, now everyone knows that you can never get a similar garden like the ones showcased at the Chelsea Flower Show in any of the parks in Kuala Lumpur. Just visualise tourists bound for Malaysia, who are now expecting to catch at least a “similar” garden and park in the open spaces of Kuala Lumpur and your guess is as good as mine… they will be disappointed!