Bid to list ‘silat’ as non-tangible heritage
KOTA TINGGI: The National Heritage Department, in cooperation with Persatuan Dunia Seni Silat Melayu Malaysia (DSMM), is working towards gazetting silat as a non-tangible heritage under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
DSMM honorary secretary Maimoon Hussein said Indonesia had put in a bid to declare silat as such, and Malaysia would do so too for its version of the martial art.
She said the department was in the process of preparing documentation to support the bid.
“This documentation process is important to ensure that silat is respected as having originated from the Malays, and to compile the various schools of the martial art in the country as this, too, will be counted (when Unesco considers the bid),” she said at the Himpunan Seribu Srikandi Melayu in Dataran Tanjung Balau here.
Present was National Civics Bureau director-general Datuk Ibrahim Saad, who represented Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.
Maimoon said it would not be fair if silat was declared as belonging to any one country as the martial art belonged to the Malay people.
“Whether these Malays are in Africa or Cambodia, it does not matter... Silat should belong to the people. From history’s standpoint, it was the Malay people who developed this martial art.”
She said the decision on whether silat would be declared a nontangible heritage of the Malay people would be known in six months.
Some 1,000 exponents from 20 different schools nationwide attended the event.