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Budget 2023: Arts and culture sidelined again, says expert

The meagre allocation for arts and culture under Budget 2023 is a clear sign that it is the least of the government’s priorities, says Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr Mohamed Ghouse Nasuruddin.

Under Budget 2023, a total of RM20 million was allocated for sporting, cultural, and arts programmes in schools, to foster unity. An additional RM25 million was also set aside for cultural and arts programmes at the community level.

“Only RM20 million for schools? There are so many schools in the country. That’s quite absurd,” said Mohamed Ghouse of Universiti Sains Malaysia’s School of Arts.

“It is a token allocation. It is not for the development of the arts and culture within the curriculum, nor is it meant to make students aware of the arts,” he said.

Mohamed Ghouse, a former director of the National Arts and Culture Academy (Aswara), said the government appears to not have a strategic plan for developing the arts into an industry.

“Even the RM25 million allocation for community-level cultural and arts programmes appears unrealistic,” he said.

“The government should have said that the allocations were for the conservation and preservation of traditional arts and heritage, or for the development of artisanal skills of practitioners in traditional and modern arts, or to develop arts into tourism products,” he added.

Under Budget 2023, a total of RM250 million was allocated to the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry to promote tourism. Of the amount, RM115 million will be set aside as matching grants for the tourism and culture industry, specifically to promote and host large-scale sporting, and cultural programmes.

“Once again, the bulk of allocation for the ministry is to promote tourism. The arts has been sidelined and this is just disheartening,” said Mohamed Ghouse.

Mohamed Ghouse, who is also a columnist with Twentytwo13, had on Feb 21 wrote that while the arts and culture contributed significantly to the spiritual, aesthetic, intellectual, and economic wellbeing of the country, they have not been accorded proper and serious consideration in government planning, especially in terms of budgetary allocations over the years.