Saving George Town Festival: Why the Malaysian arts community must unite

By Bilqis Hijjas

We need to be brave, and we need to stand together.

If you haven’t been following the crisis emerging around George Town Festival, here’s the short version: online voices are attacking the festival for not including explicitly Malay cultural performances and are accusing the festival programmers of deliberately seeking to erase Penang’s ethnic Malay history and heritage.

This has been picked up by national media and various political parties seeking to gain leverage, leading to sponsors pulling their logos, some drastic last-minute restructuring of the festival, and members of the programming team suffering brutal online attacks full of hateful racist rhetoric.

If you are a person in the Malaysian arts and culture sector sitting back and watching this with your popcorn, I beg of you – reconsider. This thing has repercussions beyond what you can imagine. At the very least, it will probably lead to the death of the George Town Festival.

Surprised? Reconsider. Do you really think that the Penang state government – which has already signalled its waning commitment to the arts by standing by while the Penang House of Music closed, the George Town Literary Festival was gutted, and the Penang Arts District shrank beyond recognition – will want to support something so tarnished with such bad press?

Whatever you think of the George Town Festival – whether you are irritated because your project application wasn’t selected, or you’ve always found the festival’s programming problematic, or you think it’s a flawed or elitist platform, or you think that the programming team was unforgivably naive to ignore the realities of Malaysia’s political landscape – please reconsider. The GTF is the largest single continuing multi-arts festival of scale and repute that this entire country has. And it is in real danger.

Don’t sit back and sneer that the media release was poorly translated. Your BM [Malay language] so hot? Then volunteer to help them with their text. Please help share news from GTF’s programmes, whether about schedule changes or shows that are still available. And please, please, please think twice before piling onto the bandwagon of critical online voices.

Because if we don’t stand up for the GTF – yes, your children will be next. The space for the arts, for freedom, for expression, for creativity, for love is shrinking in this country. And that doesn’t change unless we defend it, by putting aside our petty popcorn-eating selves and looking at the bigger picture.

I’ve done plenty of bitching about the GTF in my time. But I never stood up, put my big boy pants on, and applied to be the artistic director of this festival. Why? Because it looked so unutterably terrifying. Who would volunteer to be in that position, resented by most, hated by some, never able to please everyone, with demanding stakeholders lurking behind every bush? I never answered the call for tender. And I bet neither did you.

But I bet you have seen a GTF show that would never have been performed in Malaysia except because the festival exists. Or you may have appreciated the buzz of excitement in George Town during festival season, when art and artists seem to be everywhere. Or perhaps you just vaguely thought to yourself, hmm, that looks interesting, perhaps I’ll go up to George Town to see that – before scrolling on.

Your life won’t really seem to change if the GTF ceases to exist, and yet it will. If we shrink into our own holes now while the elephants battle above us, we will emerge to a world unrecognisable.

We must engage, somehow. I’m not suggesting that you fight the online voices – they are never amenable to reason.

But we are all creatives; now’s the time to find creative ways to support this festival, even if only quietly. Lean in, make art, show up and support each other, here and now. – Bilqis Hijjas/Facebook

Bilqis Hijjas, a Harvard University alumna, writes, produces, performs and teaches about dance in Kuala Lumpur.

The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.

AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama

1. Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
2. Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
3. Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
4. Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
5. Lawan rasuah dan kronisme

Support our work by making a donation. Tap to download the QR code below and scan this QR code from Gallery by using TnG e-wallet or most banking apps: