The organiser of the “Songkran Festival” in Perak has changed the name of the upcoming celebration to “Sahom Water Festival” following criticism from PAS.
Sahom Valley Resort managing director Shariff Ali Jabad Ali said on Facebook that renaming the festival scheduled for Aug 26 and 27 was to avoid controversy and ward off the stigma of some parties towards the event.
“The first programme organised in May was welcomed by almost 500 visitors and we hoped that the use of the word ‘Songkran’ this time would be able to attract more visitors but it has become the subject of criticism by several quarters.
“So, in order to ease the community’s perception and respect all parties, the programme is rebranded as Water Festival because Songkran is a sensitive issue even though it was just a perception and we apologise for the confusion over the matter,” he said.
Shariff said the water festival should not be seen as a Siamese Songkran festival but only as a water activity for the visitors.
“The organiser admits the mistake of using the term ‘Songkran Festival’ in our announcement last week, but our intention was not to follow the same as the Songkran Festival, that was our own mistake as there was no intention to observe religious events or customs like in the neighbouring countries.
“We take note of the remarks and suggestions from all parties, especially the Tualang Sekah assemblyperson’s office, including villagers who question why we use the term Songkran Festival and we admit our mistake,” he added.
The assemblyperson for Tualang Sekah is PKR’s Mohd Azlan Helmi Helmi.
Meanwhile, Shariff said the purpose of organising the programme was also to improve the economy of the local population and attract more tourists to the district.
Earlier, the Kampar PAS Youth strongly protested the holding of the Songkran Festival at Sahom Valley Resort.
Its chief Saiful Islam Abdul Rahman regretted the open announcement to the community by the organisers to attend the festival, which he said contradicts the principles of Islam. - Mkini
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