No special fund for the performing arts
Published on: Saturday, April 11, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: There is no special fund allocated for the advancement of the creative media and performing arts industry in the State as alleged by local filmmaker Tony Francis Gitom.Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said he had gone through his ministry's list of requests for Federal funding recently and he did not see such request anywhere on the list."In the first place, filming is not even under my ministry. To my knowledge, filming is not part of the Culture portfolio of my ministry. It has always been under the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas).
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"I am afraid he is barking up the wrong tree," he explained.Masidi was replying to claims made by Tony that there is an attempt to siphon the fund, which he said is provided by the Federal government, into the Sabah Cultural Board (SCB).Tony said he is concerned that some of the funds, claimed to be between RM15 and 20 million, will be used for other purposes and will not reach the target groups. He suggested that a new agency be established to manage the fund.Masidi who welcomed the suggestion said he will be the happiest person to see it realised and that the creative media and performing arts industry will be taken care of by whatever department or ministry that Tony thinks fit.
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He however added that to the best of his knowledge, there is not such fund as claimed by Tony."If there is, my ministry's secretary or the SCB would have informed me," he said.
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Creative media and performing arts industry players in the State implored the government to establish an agency under the Chief Minister's Department for the upliftment of the industry.Gitom blamed the slow growth of the industry in the State to the attitude of certain ministers and department heads who do not understand the needs of the industry but who are all too willing to tap the money meant for the development of the industry into their own projects."The Federal government had already allocated funds to spur the industry here. However, I'm afraid the money will not reach us for several reasons. First of all, the money will be combined together with Sabah Cultural Board's funds."So we would not know for certain whether the money is used to benefit the target groups because the money will be managed by the Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry."Secondly, there will be no transparency and I can say this based on my experience. For years now, we encountered so many difficulties with the ministry, so much red tape when dealing with them," he said.Therefore, Tony said they would prefer something new and fresh and urged the government to set up a new agency under the Chief Minister's Department since the department has a direct link to the Prime Minister's Department that gives out the funds in the first place."We have been told that in Sabah, there is no special ministry to deal with our group so this is why we want this new agency," he said.Tony added that he also regretted Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun's recent statement that local artistes should not rely too much on the government especially because the statement was made in front of Yayasan Artis 1Malaysia (YA1M) veterans, Datuk Yusof Haslam and Datuk DJ Dave.Such statement, he said can be misconstrued to mean that Sabah artistes are always asking the government to support and help them."Look, the Federal government already gives the fund to help the industry. So why hide it? If the money is not there yet, that's OK, we can wait. "In Kuala Lumpur, the government pays attention to the industry players. Here, because the State government is unprepared, they are not helping us and of course the money, meant for the industry, will go someplace else and sometimes to those with no interests in the creative media or performing arts," he said.Meanwhile, Tony revealed that he is gathering local short films, recorded in ethnic languages, to be presented to the relevant ministry, to try and persuade them to set up special slots for creative products from Sabah and Sarawak.Currently, he said, filmmakers in Sabah and Sarawak are forced to fight for slots with their West Malaysian counterparts and this makes the latter angry because Sabahans and Sarawakians are 'stealing' their airtime.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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