PENANG plans to nominate its “hawker culture” as an intangible heritage to Unesco.

State tourism, arts, culture and heritage executive councillor Yeoh Soon Hin said the state government plans to get its culture of hawkers into the Unesco Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity under the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

But this must be done with the National Heritage Department’s approval, he said.

“Our hawker culture is more vibrant and unique compared to Singapore’s because our hawkers are still selling from the roadside, not just food courts.

“We have sent a letter on the matter to the National Heritage Department.

“We have also written to deputy tourism minister (Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik) to ask him to recommend to the department to get a joint nomination for Singapore and Malaysia hawker culture,” he said in his winding up speech at the Penang assembly this afternoon.

Penang’s city of George Town is already a Unesco World Heritage site.

Lee Khai Loon ((Machang Bubok-PH), interjected, asked why the joint nomination was not for Singapore and Penang.

“Malaysia is too big. Penang stands out as the food haven, so why can’t the nomination be for Singapore and Penang?”

Lee also told Yeoh that Penang needs to work on the nomination more aggressively if the state wants its hawker culture to be recognised.

“We don’t want Unesco to just recognise Singapore and then we will be back here raising a ruckus for missing out,” he said.

Yeoh said Singapore has been claiming that many of its hawker dishes originate from the republic when the dishes are also served by Malaysian hawkers.

He said the nomination to Unesco has to come from the country, adding that he would follow up with the heritage department on Penang’s request for the nomination.

He said Bakhtiar, who is also from Penang, was also working on the matter.

In his speech, he also said Penang wants to become a concert destination, which will attract international artistes and their fans to the state. – May 2, 2019.