PENDET DANCE AD NOT PRODUCED BY MALAYSIAN GOVT

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 25 (ANTARA) - The Balinese pendet dance advertisement in a Malaysian tourism promotional program, which sparked anger in Indonesia, was not produced by Malaysia's culture and tourism ministry (KRU) but by the Singapore-based Discovery Channel, a Malaysian official said.

"The ads in a series of documentary films in the Enigmatic Malaysia program were not produced by us but by the Discovery Channel," President and Chief Executive Officer of KRU Group Norman Abdul Halim said here on Tuesday.

Halim, who was accompanied by Ketut Wiryadinata of the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Culture, was explaining the matter to the Indonesian press at the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

"We knew that there were protests and anger in Indonesia only after Indonesian newsmen contacted us yesterday," Halim said.

He said that his side had contacted the Discovery Channel which he claimed had also withdrawn the promotional ad and replaced it with a new one.

There were six documentary films in KRU's Enigmatic Malaysia program broadcast by 23 countries throughout the world. The themes of the documentary films are "The Malakan Portuguese - Preserving Their Heritage," "Bajau Laut - Nomad of The Sea", "Keris - The Myth & the Magic," "Kellie's Castle - Myth & Mystery", "Batik" and "Wau".

"On the Batik (traditional Javanese cloth), the documentary film clearly explained that Malaysian batik originates from the Javanese batik," Halim, who claimed his parents are descendants from North Sumara, said.

Ketut Wiryadinata admitted he had watched the documentary film on batik. He said that the documentary film produced by KRU revealed the fact that the Malaysian batik originated from Java.

"We have identified in our meeting today (with Halim) the point of misunderstanding on the issue where Malaysia was believed to have claimed Bali's pendet dance. This is not true at all because the promotional ad was made by the Singapore-based Discovery Channel. We will report this to the minister," he said. ***5***