Stupidity - Exhibit G

Johor International Kite Festival

I've been in Pasir Gudang for more than a year now. Last year, I had a chance to attend the 14th Pasir Gudang International Kite Festival held at Bukit Layang-Layang from 16th to 22nd February 2009. It was organized by Johor Corporation. Since I'm an outsider, it was an amazing experience to be part of the festival and it was my first experience attending a kite festival. I'm pretty sure that not many Malaysians have attended such festival even though kites are synonym with our childhood days favourite past time.

This year, to my amazement, the 15th International Kite Festival venue was changed to Bandar Dato' Onn held from 5th to 7th February 2010. I did not attend this event because I was back in KL besides I was disgusted with the idea of changing the venue. For the past 14 years, the International Kite Festival has been held at Pasir Gudang, why suddenly change it to Bandar Dato' Onn? I don't know whose silly idea it was to change the venue but I surely feel for the Pasir Gudang folks.

I've searched for a few sites for photos of these two events just to enlighten those who don't have any idea about the kite festival. For the 14th Pasir Gudang International Kite Festival, photos can be seen here, here, and here. For the 15th Bandar Dato' Onn International Kite Festival, photos can be seen here, here and here. I'm not going to argue about the number of participants nor the number of kites nor which festival has the most beautiful kites. These are just amazing scenes from both festivals.

From the photos, it's obvious that Bukit Layang-Layang is such an established and better venue compared to Bandar Dato' Onn for a kite festival. The festival at Bandar Dato' Onn looks like it took place at an open bare land, without proper facilities. At the background, you can even see bare land cleared probably to make way for housing developments. On the other hand, Bukit Layang-Layang is surrounded by lush greenery and park. Best of all, it has the Pasir Gudang Kite Museum which is the first kite museum in Malaysia and has a unique working windmill whose mechanism works to generate enough electricity for the daily needs of the museum. Isn't a kite museum should be synonymous with kite festival?

What I really don't understand is the fact that the organizer does not seem to care about the uniqueness of the festival to Pasir Gudang. All the related facilities and tradition are in place but suddenly the annual event took place some where else. Just leave the festival in Pasir Gudang for it has been close to the locals. Let Pasir Gudang build a legacy with this kite festival. Hopefully one day it will be a world renowned festival where tourists all over the world would flock to Johor to attend the annual festival. Like Penang Dragon Boat Race and Malaysia International Fireworks Competition which are synonym to Penang and Putrajaya respectively, let the Johor International Kite Festival be synonymous to Pasir Gudang.

Obviously, the main reason for organizing the festival at Bandar Dato' Onn is to promote the new township to the public. With all due respect, there are other better ways to promote a new township. Find Bandar Dato' Onn its own identity. To the general public, Pasir Gudang is known as a port and industrial town with unhealthy air and lorries racing with each other. For once, let Pasir Gudang have its own good image and unique identity. Better still, change the name to Pasir Gudang International Kite Festival once and for all and bring back the festival to where it belongs.