THE State Legislative Assembly today approved the Penang State Museum Board Enactment Bill 2020 to provide the board with new powers to supervise and monitor operations of private and personal museums around the state.
The Bill tabled by State Tourism and Creative Economy Committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin was unanimously passed by the House.
He said the redraft proposal was aimed at replacing the existing Penang State Museum Board Enactment 1972.
“Many private museums in the state are not up to standards of a museum as defined by the Department of Museums Malaysia or International Council of Museums.
“The reformation of the new enactment will see to the effectiveness and quality aspects that museums around the state will incorporate and how beneficial it will be for the community,” Yeoh (PH-Paya Terubong) told the State Legislative Assembly in Dewan Sri Pinang today.
Yeoh said through this enactment, Penang aims to become the first state in Malaysia in this new millennium to initiate a reformation pertaining to museums with various relevant and dynamic activities.
“During the State Legislative Assembly in 2016, I had suggested to the Penang government to consider several important areas to boost the quality of museums.
“One of which was to set up guidelines and establishment ethics as well as making sure museums ultimately serve as informal public education institutions spreading facts about history, culture and nature,” Yeoh added.
He also said that it was important that museums organise activities that are focused on building and strengthening communities and the tourism sector.
Yeoh said a new policy would also be introduced which will empower the state authorities to give approval for the opening of new museums provided the guidelines and other necessary requirements are met.
Syerleena Abdul Rashid (PH-Seri Delima) proposed to Yeoh, who is also the Penang State Museum Board chairman, to collaborate with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) as the institution has a lot of experienced lecturers in the area of history.
“Even history can be displayed through visuals, and this could be one way to attract the younger generation to absorb the elements in a method they are more familiar with these days,” she said.
Yeoh supported Syerleena’s feedback and said he would take into consideration to include it as part of the plan under the enactment.
“Through the Penang State Museum Board Enactment Bill 2020, the Penang government will continue in its efforts to identify and set up more museums for the benefit of the whole community.
“This enactment will not affect existing personal museums in the state but aims to inherit Malaysian culture and contribute towards creative economy in the state,” Yeoh said.
Story by Kevin Vimal
Pix by Chan Kok Kuan and Ahmad Adil Muhammad