Cultural imperialism and popular culture: unveiling the influence of Salmah Ismail @ Saloma in the Federation of Malaya

Salmah Ismail @ Saloma has been greatly influenced by imperialism, which led her to achieve such a fame in Federation of Malaya and also in the neighbouring countries. The influence of imperialism on the development of her career as an artist seems to be unnoticed even by Saloma herself and previous studies on her only conclude that Saloma was merely a singer with a melodious voice, actress, fashion icon, and a wife to a renowned artist, P. Ramlee. Cultural imperialism in Malaya is deemed to have influenced Saloma until she sparks the birth of popular culture in the Federation of Malaya. Therefore, this research would scrutinise the extent to which cultural imperialism in the Federation of Malaya has influenced Saloma in shaping popular culture in the country from the colonialism era until the post-independence era in the Federated Malay States. The results of this research show that Saloma had certainly brought a dominant image of imperialism in Malaya through culture imperialism. Saloma has successfully introduced a popular culture in the Federation of Malaya through her sense of music, media and fashion, and lifestyle. The finding of this study contributes significantly to the history of our country in relation to how the contribution of artists, which in this context referring to Saloma, had given an impact on our country's civilization. The findings of the current study can be used as a guide to highlight the role and contribution of artists that is less recognized in the civilization and history of the country

A multi-stakeholder strategy to identify conservation priorities in Peninsular Malaysia

Malaysia, with its rapidly growing economy, exemplifies the tensions between conservation and development faced by many tropical nations. Here we present the results of a multi-stakeholder engagement exercise conducted to (1) define conservation priorities in Peninsular Malaysia and (2) explore differences in perceptions among and within stakeholder groups (i.e. government, academia, NGOs and the private sector). Our data collection involved two workshops and two online surveys where participants identified seven general conservation themes and ranked the top five priority issues within each theme. The themes were: (1) policy and management, (2) legislation and enforcement, (3) finance and resource allocation, (4) knowledge, research and development, (5) socio-economic issues, (6) public awareness and participation and (7) rights of nature. In spite of their very different backgrounds and agendas, the four stakeholder groups showed general agreement in their priority preferences except for two issues. Respondents from government and private sector differed the most from each other in their priority choices while academia and NGO showed the highest degree of similarity. This ranked list of 35 conservation priorities is expected to influence the work of policy-makers and others in Peninsular Malaysia and can be used as a model to identify conservation priorities elsewhere