JOHOR BARU – Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal (Machang-PN) is urging Putrajaya to allocate funds to promote Malaysia to the world using “soft power”.
Debating Budget 2023 at the committee stages today, Wan Fayhsal highlighted that the (previous) Perikatan Nasional government had established cultural diplomacy programmes.
The Machang MP went on to ask if the government intends to allocate funds to promote Malaysian culture through the medium of art.
Wan Fayhsal said many countries have used this method to promote their culture abroad including Turkiye.
“Turkiye has Dirilis: Ertugrul, a series about the Ottoman Empire’s history, which gained popularity in Pakistan. That’s soft power,” Wan Fayhsal said.
Dirilis: Ertugral is a series about Ertugrul Ghazi, the father of Uthman, who founded the Ottoman Empire.
Furnishing another example, the Machang MP pointed towards the hit HBO series Game of Thrones.
Although Game of Thrones is described as a fantasy drama, Wan Fayhsal said that the television series was funded by the European Union (EU) to promote the continent’s culture and history.
“If we look at Europe, there’s Game of Thrones where the EU provided funds to promote European history and culture to the world,” Wan Fayhsal added.
He then went on to give a local example of Malaysian content doing well overseas, pointing towards the animated series Mechamoto.
Wan Fayhsal said the series nabbed an award in Japan and continues to create similar content to promote Malaysia’s soft power abroad.
“We can make animated content as a method to promote our soft power abroad.
“Recently, Mechamoto won the Anime Fan Award at the Tokyo Anime Awards Festival.
“I guess the Japanese like Malaysian art,” Wan Fayhsal added. – The Vibes, March 20, 2023
