KUCHING: A Sarawak arts and culture troupe consisting of 18 members has departed to New Delhi, India to perform in conjunction with “Malaysia Day Celebration: Food and Culture Promotion in New Delhi, India”.
The troupe under the guidance of Sarawak Arts Council (MSS) and headed by MSS chief executive officer (CEO) Sharkawi Amit left yesterday and will return on September 29 — a 10-day trip to India.
The troupe was invited by the High Commissioner of Malaysia to India and this is the second time performers from Sarawak have been sent to India, the first being in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) International Dance Festival in March earlier this year.
“India is a country which is fast developing, like China. Besides this, we can see that India is developed from an arts perspective as well,” said Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah in a press conference at the Baitul Makmur Building in Petra Jaya here, yesterday, which was attended by the troupe and Sharkawi.
“Lots of the locals there may not even know of Kuching or Sarawak, so this is a great way to promote Sarawak and Malaysia while building up a good relationship with the arts and culture fraternity in India.
“This would also create bonds between us and the High Commissioner of Malaysia to India,” he remarked.
He commented that during this year’s Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF), there were many visitors from India.
However, generally, Abdul Karim pointed out that inbound tourists from India to Sarawak were considered rather low but he hoped that with more engagements and promotions along with “a big jump in the middle class in India”, more tourists from India would visit Sarawak. He disclosed that from January to August this year, 17,448 tourists from India had visited Sarawak.
Abdul Karim stated that High Commissions in other parts of the world had also recognised Sarawak’s efforts in going global in terms of promotion.
“We are also in contact with the Malaysian High Commissions in the United Kingdom, Vatican City and Singapore. They have indicated interest in inviting us for programmes like this in the future,” he revealed.
“This is a win-win situation and a very good solution for us in trying to promote Sarawak as part of our tourism efforts.”
MSS also invited arts and culture collaborators such as Kumpulan Karya Terindah Performing Arts Sarawak (KTPA), Dayak Cultural Foundation, Kumpulan Kesenian Petra, Gabungan Anak Seni Sri Aman, Peserta Kelas Tari MSS as well as MSS staff themselves.
While in New Delhi, the cultural artists will perform in six locations namely ITC Muarya, ICMEI, ITC Grant Bharat, Shivaji Stadium (One Stop Centre), Malacca Restaurant and Holiday Inn Aerocity.
MSS has prepared three performance models which involve genres from various Sarawakian Bumiputera ethnicities such as Malay, Iban, Bidayuh, Orang Ulu and Melanau.
