REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Chalifa concerns over Indonesian people lacking of respect for Malay music. She pointed that some popular singing talent competitions today, none of the contestants sings the Malay song, but they prefer English songs.

"If we see Arabian idol, their songs and music are in Arabic. But, why in the Indonesian Idol, nobody plays Malay's?" Chalifa who is also a producer of Jakarta Malay Festival said on Sunday.

The poetic lyric and lilting music but meaningful and typical are picturing in Malay music. Malay music has a long history in tradition in the archipelago. However, its place now is in stack pile of history that is not noticed by recording industry and visual media. Many people, especially younger generations are no longer familiar with Malay music genre. In fact, many of them are more like pop music from other countries, such as west music, K-pop and J-pop. 

During its development, Malay music have its ups and downs. The traditional music originating from the eastern coast of Sumatra and Malay peninsula has reached its golden age in the 1980s to 1990s. However, the music that is dominated games of tambourines, harps passage, blows of gong, as well as strains of flute began to decline in early 2000s, when rock and pop music developed. The community began to abandon Malay genre. They prefered to enjoy pop music.

Efforts to revive Malay music actually began in early 2013. Gita Cinta Productions (GCP) have Malay music concert on January 16, 2013 at Crown Hotel's club & lounge in Jakarta. The Malay musical concert with its tittle, Bulan di Pagar Bintang (the Moon in Fencing Star), was quite successful to entertain Malay music lovers.

After the success of the concert, GCP quite optimistics with the upcoming fperformance on Jakarta Melayu Festival (Jakarta Malay Festival). This event will be held on August 30, 2013 at Bidakara Hotel of Jakarta. 

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