Glittering batik: The top 20 finalists had their creations showcased at the Batik Lestari fashion show. — Photos: IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
LAST Thursday night, some hundred-something people gathered in a small hall at the Securities Commission (SC) office at Bukit Kiara.
But they were not there to talk about the capital markets or the finance world. Instead, they were all there to attend a fashion show, which was part of the bigger Batik Lestari Festival aimed at promoting the rich legacy of Malaysian batik and elevating it on the global stage.
But how did the SC – a statutory body tasked with regulating and developing the country’s capital markets – end up hosting a batik festival?
It all started with Malaysia being set to take over as the Asean chairman next year.
“And with that, SC Malaysia is also assuming the chairmanship of our own capital market for security regulators, similar to Bank Negara and everybody else.
“So one of the things that we thought of doing is that we’ll try something a little bit different from the normal financial track.
“We decided to also look – and I think the prime minister is also wanting to make sure that we put up a good show as a hosting nation – that we feature the creative sector as well, alongside the capital market industry,” says SC managing director Datin Azalina Adham.
On top of that, she says, SC had this year launched a roadmap for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) or mid-tier companies.
“And this is kind of where many of the batik fashion designers or artisans, or people in that value chain are probably located.
“So we’re thinking that we want to be able to see what role we can make as capital market to actually elevate and provide a bit more economic value to the industry,” Azalina says.
A very, very viable economic contributor
The potential value of the creative industry is undeniable.
Currently, the Malaysian creative industry contributes about 1.9% of the GDP but Azalina points to other countries with a much more robust creative industry as examples.
“If you dare to dream, you’re talking about a South Korean market where it is a huge contributor to GDP or Indonesia where it’s hitting 7%, I believe.
“So it can be a very, very viable economic contributor,” she says.
With all this in mind, the SC decided to start its efforts with the batik industry. But as a financial regulatory body, it is unused to dipping its toes into the creative industry, which is why it partnered with MyCreative Ventures (MyCV). MyCV is a government investment arm under the Communications Ministry that aims to spur Malaysia’s creative industry “via strategic and innovative funding and investments”.
And out of this partnership came the Batik Lestari Festival, consisting of a batik design competition culminating in a fashion show, workshops, exhibitions, performances and a curated batik retail market, all hosted at the SC office on Dec 5 and 6.
The organisers hope the Batik Lestari festival had given visitors a better understanding of the challenges in the making of batik and its artistic value.
The design competition and fashion show were an integral part of the festival as winners will have their designs showcased at Asean meetings hosted in Malaysia next year as part of the competition prize.
But it is not just about putting batik and its artisans out on the Asean stage; Azalina says the SC is also interested in boosting batik through sustainable practices and eventually, looking at how the capital market can help with the financing needs of MSMEs.
Meanwhile, MyCV group chief executive officer Zainariah Johari says working with SC will send a strong message about the interest in developing the economy of the creative industries.
“But how do we do this together and how can we over the years make this more meaningful? And we’ll start with batik and see, who knows where this will take us,” Zainariah says.
Securities Commission managing director Datin Azalina Adham (left), here with MyCreative Ventures group CEO Zainariah Johari, says the creative industry can be a ‘very, very viable economic contributor’. — RAJA FAISAL HISHAN/The Star
Having SC host the batik festival also means that many prominent figures in the capital markets may visit the festival which will provide another opportunity to raise awareness, she says.
“We have people from the capital market who are coming to have a look at what are you guys doing. It is for them to be able to understand the industry and really see it as a choice of clothing, but also to understand the difficulty and challenges and artistic value of batik to some degree,” she says.
The rain and bearing fruit
The top winner of the Batik Lestari design competition Muhammad Nazri with his winning design. — AZLINA ABDULLAH/The Star
The winners of the batik design competition, for example, all faced the same obstacle: the rain.
Hailing from the east coast of the peninsula, they all say they had difficulty making their creation due to the heavy rain inundating that region currently.
Despite that, the SC and MyCV’s intention of driving growth in the batik industry may already be bearing early fruits through these winners.
Second-prize winners “Athirahjuhari x Shudd”, consisting of two women Siti Athirah Mohd Juhari and Nur Shuhada Halim, say they are freelance designers who last made batik 10 years ago. After their decision to just try out for this batik design contest led to them taking the second spot, they say they are now considering a future partnership for a batik-related business.
Meanwhile, top winner Muhammad Nazri Mat Nasir from Kota Baru, Kelantan, says the RM30,000 cash prize will be reinvested into his batik business which he has been running for the past seven years.
The top three winners of the batik design competition will have their designs featured throughout the Asean meetings next year. — AZLINA ABDULLAH/The Star
Third-prize winner Elegen Dinamik also revealed that they are a group of lecturers from Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, who teach the batik art and that they had also led a group of their students to join the competition for exposure and experience.
But the journey to promote and raise awareness about Malaysian batik is still nascent; as Elegen Dinamik’s representative Nawwal Abdul Kadir points out, many people still don’t even know the difference between Malaysian and Indonesian batik.
“Even at the fashion show, there were some attendees who were wearing Indonesian batik.
“You may not have noticed but people like us will notice these things,” says Nawwal, who has been in the batik industry for over three decades.
But the batik veteran agrees with Azalina and Zainariah – the more people use batik, the better the awareness of it.
