Wednesday October 3, 2007
Rasa Sayang belongs to all
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will continue to use folk song Rasa Sayang in its Truly Asia tourism campaign because the number is a folk song from the Malay archipelago.
Based on this fact, Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said, Indonesia could not claim ownership of the song.
“I don’t understand. I have already explained to the Jakarta Post that Rasa Sayang is a folk song for Kepulauan Nusantara (Malay archipelago). So, Indonesia cannot claim that the song is theirs,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Tengku Adnan was commenting a Bernama report on the Indonesian newspaper quoting an Indonesian House of Representatives member Hakam Naja as saying if the Indonesian Government could prove the song belonged to Indonesia, it should sue the Malaysian Government.
The newspaper also quoted Chairman of the Golkar Party faction at the House, Priyo Budi Santoso, as saying the Indonesian Government needed to determine whether Malaysia was using the song without Indonesia’s permission.
“If they want to use Indonesia’s traditional music, Malaysia should first ask for our permission because that’s our country’s heritage,” he said.
However, Indonesia’s Copyright Council chairman Enteng Tanamal said that suing Malaysia was unlikely to succeed because the song’s author was unknown.
“How can we sue Malaysia if nobody knows who wrote the song?” he said, adding that: “Therefore, it’s fine if Malaysia uses the song as their tourism theme song.”
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