Thread by @walski69

Yes, funding for the arts and the creative industry is important. But it doesn’t have to all be direct government funding.

IMHO: the thing is we DON’T have a long-term plan to develop the creative industry, only ad-hoc measures put together.

And it’s not rocket science, either

https://twitter.com/malaymail/status/1318496447776522242

As someone involved in one sector of the creative industry, the biggest problem I see impeding its growth - even bigger than funding - is the lack of appreciation for the arts, and how little value the arts and things creative.

I know it’s an unpleasant truth, but...

… until and unless we accept this as a root cause, simply throwing money at the problem is NOT going to advance the creative industry.

It’s not an impossible problem to solve, but neither is this problem solvable in the short term.

Typo - what I meant to say, 2 tweets back: … and how little value the arts and things creative are given, by pretty much all levels of society.

Bottom line, we’ve been conditioned as a society to believe that the arts and things creative are frivolous, a waste of time and resource. Oh, and goes against our increasingly puritanical practice of religion.

There, MORE uncomfortable truths we need to acknowledge.

But I’m not writing this thread to assign blame. Rather, the call that we MUST acknowledge true root causes IF we’re really serious about developing the creative industry.

Why *would* we want to honestly develop our creative industry? Simple: just look at Indonesia & S. Korea

Slight tangent, but here’s another unpopular fact: you CANNOT teach someone how to be creative.

What CAN be done, however, is create an environment where creativity can naturally be nurtured, and more importantly, ALLOWED to nurture.

Today’s Malaysia is NOT such an environment

I probably have an entire blueprint in my head how Malaysia can possibly become a creative power house on a global level.

But I’m not going to spill all the beans here. I will, however, share some things that can be done in the short term.

I’m not saying funding isn’t important, by the way. It is.

In my mind, one thing the government can do in the short term is to make it worthwhile for corporations to invest in the arts, through short-term and long-term sponsorship.

The quickest way is through tax incentives.

Yes, there already are corporations setting up foundations and using these as vehicles to pump money into the arts. But simply not enough, I feel.

The short-term solution? Corporate tax incentives for spending on and sponsorship of the arts.

Similarly, personal income tax deductions for purchasing original Malaysian artworks, sponsoring arts events, etc.

Another method is to legislate that a small percentage of all development projects *must* be devoted to public art. Doesn’t have to be much, 1 or 2% for starters.

These are not original ideas, but things that other countries have done, and continue to do.

As I said, outright government funding isn’t the *only* answer to funding.

A longer term initiative to foster the love for the arts is to make arts and humanities an important component of basic education, from kindy to primary to secondary (or K - 12 as they say in the US).

Hence, I support non-streaming post-PMR, as has been previously suggested

I believe one of the reasons why Malaysians generally are not well-rounded is because of our education systems (we’re only well-rounded in the weight problem department - LOL).

If you’ve followed this thread so far, you’ll notice that a COMPREHENSIVE multi-ministerial effort is required if we’re really serious about properly developing our creative industry to its fullest potential. And not KKMM alone.

Remember what I said earlier about Malaysia not being an environment conducive for creativity to nurture?

We as a society are regressing and embracing the very worst of what conservatism has to offer.

And what has this got to do with creativity, you ask?

My view is that conservatism - in particular religious conservatism - is creativity’s kryptonite. Particularly in a society increasingly conditioned and compelled to be “compliant” to religious conservative dictates.

Iran is a notable exception. And I don’t know why, exactly. But I can say that Iranian filmmakers have creatively crafted their films to work around restrictions, and their international critical success is not because of their government’s conservatism, but despite it.

The more religion is allowed to permeate into the public sphere, and worse, allowed to exert its influence within the public sphere and shape policy, the worse the creative industry will fare in the long run.

In closing, I’d like to ask this question to the Malaysian government:

When it comes to the creative industry is your intention to honestly develop it to its fullest potential on a global scale, OR is your ultimate aim to CONTROL it?

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