Dr Alim Impera
KUCHING (June 27): The Bidayuh Artistes and Musicians Association Sarawak (Bama) fully supports the establishment of collective management organisations (CMOs) specifically for Sabah and Sarawak, aimed at ensuring better shares of royalties.
Bama chairman Dr Alim Impera said it was necessary for both Sarawak and Sabah to have their own CMOs due to the distinctive nature and music environment in the two states where thousands of local ethnic songs had been penned by native composers.
“Bama has received grouses from our members, who are also members of the already-established CMOs in the country. They express their disappointment over not getting their fair share of royalties,” he said in a statement issued in response to recent news reports about the application by Music Rights Sarawak Bhd (MRSB) and Music Rights Sabah Bhd (MRS) as CMOs in the two respective states.
According to the reports, their application are being met with protests from Music Authors Copyright Protection (MACP), Public Performance Malaysia Bhd (PPM), and Recording Performers Malaysia Bhd (RPM).
Alim said Bama was in the midst of calling the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO), the nation’s custodian of intellectual property (IP) rights, to approve the application by MRSB and MRS pursuant to the provisions under the Copyright Act 1987 to improve fairness in royalty collections.
The MyIPO is an agency under the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, of which Kapit MP Dato Sri Alexander Nanta Linggi is the minister-in-charge.
“Bama also calls upon Dato Sri Alexander Nanta Linggi to intervene and help protect the music composers in Sarawak and Sabah, and also to ensure optimum rewards for them.
“Bama calls upon the Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to ignore the protests and proceed with the plan to set up the two new bodies (CMOs for Sabah and Sarawak),” he said.
Formed and officially registered on Jan 6, 2015, Bama represents and promotes the interests of the Malaysian performing artistes and musicians of Bidayuh origins.
According to Alim, the members comprise singers, musicians, songwriters, lyricists, record company owners, singers, session musicians, music composers and those involved in the film and video industry.
Bama’ response to this issue came few days after Asmin Mudin, the famed composer of ‘Sayang Kinabalu’, had revealed to an online news portal about Sabah musicians ‘earning peanuts’ from royalties over the last 30 years.
Asmin was quoted as saying that his creation ‘Sayang Kinabalu’, despite getting heavy airplay, had brought in only RM124 a year – a value determined by the CMOs in Peninsular Malaysia.
“All this is happening because the CMOs see the ethnic songs of Sabah and Sarawak as being enjoyed only during the Kaamatan and Gawai Dayak festivals.
“Although Sabah has more than 5,000 ethnic songs, and Sarawak has 4,000 songs, these CMOs (in peninsula) are likely to assume that the 9,000 songs are used only by village shamans,” Asmin had told the online news portal.
Asmin, who is also Sabah Music Composers and Video Makers Association (SCORE) chairman, had said that he came to know about the discrimination against ethnic songs in 2007.
He was also quoted as saying that the association’s 272 members would be willing to withdraw from peninsula-based CMOs, adding that the issue had discouraged Sabahan talents from joining the music industry.