Club aims to be community hub with mentoring, hands-on classes
MALAY arts and culture must be preserved to ensure they remain relevant to the younger generation.
Selangor Islamic affairs and cultural innovation committee chairman Dr Mohammad Fahmi Ngah said cultural heritage – encompassing music, traditional dance, silat and visual crafts – needed to transition from passive archival storage into an urgent cultural necessity.
“In an era of borderless digital landscapes, Malay heritage must be preserved.
“Selangor’s Malay cultural fabric must transcend the confines of museums,” he said after launching the Kampung Lindungan Arts and Cultural Club at the PJS6/1D community hall in Petaling Jaya.
Fahmi said social media often drew youth toward digital subcultures, making local heritage seem obsolete or disconnected from contemporary life without deliberate intervention.
He said the new club could serve as a community hub where elders directly mentor the youth, bridging the generational divide through artistic expression.
“Clubs of this nature can safeguard Malay arts and culture.
“It is more than preserving historical artefacts; it is about securing the collective soul of a community,” he said.
Fahmi said the club’s community leaders were spearheading initiatives to ensure Malay traditions resonated with a digitally inclined generation.
He added that the younger generation must be empowered to reinterpret these traditions through a contemporary lens, demonstrating that cultural identity and modernity could coexist.
Upon his arrival at the community hall, Fahmi was given a Malay headdress, a tengkolok made of songket to wear.
There were also silat and gamelan performances during the event.
Kampung Lindungan Residents Association chairman Nordin Omar said the club was formed six months ago under the umbrella of Kampung Lindungan Residents Association and has 250 members.
“We have specialised classes for silat, zapin, gamelan, theatre and poetry recitation,” Nordin said.
