KOTA KINABALU: Multinational or joint-nominations for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) recognitions for certain cultural heritages can avoid overlaps and ensure minimal controversies. Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said this is because there are shared traditions between countries, citing examples of the multinational nominations for ‘pantun’ done with Indonesia and the ‘Wangkang’ festival together with China. Mahdzir who is Malaysian National Commission for Unesco president, was responding to a question on updates on the three types of cultural heritage for recognition by Unesco’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which Malaysia submitted back in March this year. “For example batik; in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia they have batik designs too ... even in South Africa. “So submitting this would be difficult and these are the things we need to consider when submitting nominations.

Source: New Strait Times September 11, 2017 07:07 UTC