Malaysia - Malaysia did not ever lay claim to Indonesia`s traditional arts, including songs, dances, fabrics, puppet theater and musicals, Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia Dato Zainal Abidin Zain said Wednesday.
"Read our website, we never claimed any of Indonesia`s traditional arts as our own," Dato said.
"It has been exaggerated by irresponsible parties who have negative motives to spoil our good relations with Indonesia."
The ambassador was speaking to a group of journalists at the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta and he said he wanted his statement to put an end to the controversy, which has ignited outrage among Indonesians.
Media reports from Kuala Lumpur said the Malaysian government also agreed on Tuesday to drop from its latest tourism campaign two dances with Indonesian origins.
Dato said culture was an emotional matter and that it would be easy to provoke two sides by playing with cultural sensitivities.
In October, Indonesia accused Malaysia of using the republic`s traditional song Rasa Sayange (Feeling of Love) as a background song in its tourism campaign.
Numerous cultural copyright issues followed, because Indonesian traditional arts had been used by Malaysia in its tourism campaign but never claimed as Malay in origin.
Dato said Indonesia had yet to present its facts regarding the controversy.
"Recently, there have been rumors spreading through the internet among Indonesian and Malaysian youngsters to hate each other using Indonesia-Malaysia bilateral issues," Dato said.
"This should immediately be curbed and things must be made clear (for both sides)."
The relations between Indonesia and Malaysia have been impacted recently by issues including Indonesian immigrant workers` rights, forest fire haze and overlapping territorial claims.
Last week, activists demonstrated outside the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta, slamming Kuala Lumpur for promoting in its tourism campaign Indonesia`s traditional masked dance Reog, which comes originally from Ponorogo, East Java.
"It was a sigh of relief after hearing the Ambassador`s clarification that Malaysia never claimed Reog as its own and it was brought by Javanese people to Malaka," Ponorogo`s Regent Muhadi Suyono told journalists.
Suyono said he hoped in the future, Malaysia would identify `Reog` properly so that people would realize its origin.
Mukhlis Paeni, the director general for arts, films and cultural values at the Culture and Tourism Ministry, said Indonesian and Malaysian governments will discuss the feasibility of jointly promoting both countries` performing arts.
"The joint promotion will be attempted so that when people see Malaysian tourism campaigns with Reog masked dances, they will also know that it is originally part of Indonesia`s traditional culture," he said.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com (6 Desember 2006)