RM1.19 Million Allocated For Martial Arts Development

KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 (Bernama) -- The Ministry of Youth and Sports has allocated RM1.19 million to revive and expand martial arts, including silat and taekwondo.

Its deputy minister, Datuk Razali Ibrahim said each parliamentary constituency would be allocated RM10,000 for self-defence instructors' allowances.

"The allocation could help popularise martial arts and increase the number of athletes taking up self-defence as sports," he said when met here Monday.

He was commenting on Member of Parliament for Bayan Baru Zahrain Mohamed Hashim's question on measures taken by the government to develop and promote silat at the Dewan Rakyat here today.

Razali said silat was recognised by the government as the official martial arts under the National Heritage Act 2005, made a compulsory event in the Malaysian Games since 1998 and accorded as one the 19 core sports approved for development by a Cabinet committee.

Sourced from http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=574347

Teen silat warriors fight for supremacy



Members and supporters of the Persaudaraan Sendeng Bersatu team from Singapore turned up in force to support their contestants

The five-day Jom Silat competitions attracted hundreds of teenagers from 25 silat associations from Johor Baru and Singapore.

They competed for the coveted Datuk Nur Jazlan challenge trophy, which honours the Pulai member of parliament Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed.

The event was held at the Youth and Sports Complex in Larkin, Johor Baru, recently. It was organised by the National Silat Martial Arts Association Johor Baru branch (Pesaka) and the Pulai parliamentary office.

The pounding of the jidor (a pulsating drum from the kompang ensemble) filled the hall as the participants walked in to begin the competition.

In a typical silat competition, there is a referee and five judges.

The referee will only allow light attacks and will halt the competition should tempers flare between the two participants.

The five judges, who are seated along the boundary lines of the court, hold a blue flag in one hand and red flag in the other.

They will lift one of the flags to indicate their choice of winner.

The participant with the greater number of flags (minimum three) wins.

The Seligi Tunggal Silat Association of Singapore was declared the overall winner at the event. The members won eight gold medals, six silver medals and four bronze medals.

Azim Efendi of the Seni Golok silat team was declared the most outstanding male silat performer while Faradiba Tugiman of Silat Pahlawan was the most outstanding female silat performer.

Pesaka JB branch secretary Zaki Mohammad said silat was getting more popular, especially among youths.

"Its popularity is now at par with other traditional martial arts such as taekwondo, judo and karate.

"We thank the Youth and Sports Ministry and parents for encouraging the young ones, especially the teenagers, to take up silat seriously," he said.

Md Yusshalman Md Yusof, a silat trainer of the Seligi Tunggal group of Gelang Patah, praised the event and added that there was no foul play.

Silat teacher Ramli Alwi, who heads a silat group from Bukit Panjang, Singapore, said the judges were fair and decisive.

The event was closed by Abdul Rashid Kasman, a representative of the Pulai parliamentery office.

Also present was Pesaka's patron Datuk Rashidi Mohd Noor.

He praised Pesaka for its showmanship and effort in organising a commendable competition.

He pledged to support the association in its forthcoming programmes.

Sourced from: http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/jpsilat2-2/Article#ixzz1HskyZXA2

Silat Motivation Programme

A Self-Excellence Motivation Programme: Self-Defence Silat Suffian, aims to motivate young the generation in increasing their self-confidence to become more positive in facing challenges. The programme was held this afternoon at the Youth Centre in the capital.

Speaking at the event, the Acting Director of Youth and Sports, Awang Haji Abdul Malik noted that the programme is hoped to act as incentive to local youths to possess strong spirit and determination pertaining to race, religion and nation building.

A motivational talk was delivered by the Founder of the self-defence, SSBD, Awang Morlahnie bin Mornie. He also staged a martial-art demonstration. Well-known as Maul Mornie, the founder has toured several places and countries in efforts to introduce such martial art and Brunei Darussalam as well as to promote the arts culture of Bruneians self-defence. The programme was organised by the Youth and Sports Department.

Sourced from http://www.rtbnews.rtb.gov.bn/?c=newsDetail&news_id=18993

Crash kills silat masters

ALOR SETAR: Five silat masters were killed and four musicians injured after the van that they were travelling in skidded and crashed into a tree at Jalan Titi Haji Idris, about 15km from here.

The group, who were members of the Persatuan Persilatan dan Pergendangan Silat Kedah, was returning home to Pendang after performing silat at a wedding in Sungai Buloh, Selangor, on Sunday, when the accident occurred at about 3.30am yesterday.

Three silat masters died on the spot while two others died at the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital.



Mangled wreck: Pendang District Police Public Order and Traffic Chief Insp Abdul Ghani Kamis inspecting the wreckage of the van yesterday.

The five are Jumaat @ Saad Mat Akir, 62, Juhari Darus, 65, Ahmad Ismail, 65, Sudin Deris, 65 and Ishak Awang Kechik @ Hanafiah, 78.
The four injured musicians are Che Ishak Hussin, 54, Arifin Mahazon, 56, and Mohd Idris Senafi, 20 and Ahmad’s son Roshidi, 24, who was driving the van.

According to Mohd Idris, the group left Sungai Buloh on Sunday evening and had stopped in Tapah at about 11.30pm.

“I fell asleep when we resumed the journey and woke up at the hospital bed this morning,” he said.

Association president Haris Fazilah Ismail said 14 people including the five silat masters, exponents and musicians attended the wedding.

“Five of them went by car while the others were in a van,” he said.

Unbearable loss: A relative of Ishak Awang reacting after learning that he was among those killed in the accident yesterday morning.

He said Roshidi lost control of the van after trying to avoid an animal.

Pendang acting OCPD Asst Supt L. Pubadi said police had recorded Roshidi’s statement, adding the case was being investigated under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987 for reckless driving.

Sourced from http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/22/nation/8316692&sec=nation

Sad story of Vietnam’s pencak silat

VietNamNet Bridge – The national pencak silat team is about to group up to prepare for the Southeast Asian Games and other international competitions but athletes don’t want to join the team.

Hong Ngoan, who has won many medals at regional and world competitions, has said goodbye to pencak silat though she is still one of the best athletes, with good health and superior technique.

Huynh Thi Thu Hong and Nguyen Thi Phuong Thuy - SEA Games current champions – will not enter the national team because they are getting married. Other champions like Nguyen Viet Anh and Nguyen Thanh Quyen have refused to join the team for studies.

Last year, when the national pencak silat team convened to prepare for the world championship, two senior coaches Xuan Hai and The Lam refused to join the team. However, Vietnam didn’t lack good coaches so the team still had their coaches and won the championship.

Both coaches and athletes don’t want to play for the national team because of the following reasons.

Firstly, the investment policy for pencak silat has changed. Previously, when Vietnam aimed at the SEA Games, pencak silat was a key sport and pencak silat athletes were always welcomed home as heroes after regional and international competitions.

At the SEA Games 1999, Vietnamese pencak silat athletes won seven gold medals, accounting for more than 40 percent of the gold medals of the Vietnamese sports delegation.

At SEA Games 2001, pencak silat gold medals helped Vietnam to rank the fourth in the medal tally. Pencak silat athletes also won up to 11 gold medals at SEA Games 2003.

In that golden time, pencak silat athletes were always honored by the media and nominated as the country’s 10 best athletes of the year.

In recent years, though they won the world championship and gold medals at SEA Games, pencak silat athletes were not named in selections of the best athletes of the year.

Pencak silat is on the wane because Vietnam now focuses investment in sports for the Asian Games and the Olympics, not the SEA Games.

This year, the funding for pencak silat is equivalent to nearly one third of that for track-and-field while the number of medals won by pencak silat is high. Vietnam has registered only several international pencak silat tournaments this year.

Pencak silat athletes have to practice very hard and always face injuries but their income is low. Though they play well, they are not highly appreciated. As a result, athletes don’t want to play for the national team.

Vietnam still aims to enter the top three of the SEA Games from now to 2020 but if it doesn’t invest properly in pencak silat, it may fail to achieve that goal.

The Missing Half of Martial Arts

It is nearly impossible to find a people on this planet who have not been exposed to war, either directly or indirectly. In the Western world, the two world wars, Viet Nam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq have left tremendous impact on the lives and culture of everyone there.

Similarly, Malaysia has had its taste of smaller-scale, lower technology battles since time unrecorded and our psyche is imprinted with the clan wars of Nusantara, the coming of the Portuguese, Dutch, English and, for a short time, the Japanese. Such a contrast, it is; Malaysia has never collectively undergone the horror of a truly modern war.

We've never had images of napalm, gas, missiles, tanks, M-16 (nor Steyr) gunfire burned into the backs of our brains, nor in our pop culture. Malaysian war movies are generally baulked at, because there's so few material to redescribe.

This leads us to the problem plaguing Silat today. It has been divorced from its root: war.

For many, many years, we've read visiting foreigners comment on the ineffectiveness of our silat styles, and how they have degraded into shallow versions of their former selves. And for those many years too, we've defended it with statements such as: "You don't understand our culture" or "We have deadly techniques that we can't practice".

Seeing the deadliness of silat with my own eyes, I am among those who defend its effectiveness.

Unfortunately, I'm also forced to admit that there are styles that are freeze framed onto the spot and have discarded the age-old philosophy of silat that I was brought up with: mengaji (studying), mengamal (applying), mengkaji (delving), mengajar (teaching), menyebar (disseminating), mewaris (inheriting), menyambung (extending) and mengaji (studying again).

Fortunately, for most styles, the effectiveness of silat doesn't disappear because methods and techniques are replaced by others. It happens when teachers and students lose the context of the teachings themselves.

I have been told by so many teachers that the younger generation don't understand the real applications of what is taught to them. They marvel at the counters and recounters of a fight exchange. They practice for long, drawn out demonstrations and they adjust the syllabi to ensure they can continue learning unending techniques they will never apply. Being part of the generation who didn't understand, I of course didn't get what these masters were saying.

Once upon a time, studying silat meant studying to masterhood. It never meant studying to instructorhood, or practitionerhood. It meant, that within 100 days of going the distance 8 gruelling hours a day, you would have discovered how to control every movement, spiritual, mental or physical. Your mastery of the system taught by the master was complete. Your next task? Go and find another master and master HIS system.

But how was all this possible? Today, hundreds of thousands of students in Malaysia are run through their syllabi, learning, memorising, performing, testing and memorising again. Eight hundred hours would never be enough for any of them, and for many, it isn't.

That's because silat was not taught by rote memory. It was taught through guided discovery. It was taught using simple, but not simplistic formulas called by various names: Petua, Sifir, Rahsia etc that provided the student an algorithm to process the mass of information that besieged him.

However, at a deeper level, behind everything that was intellectual, there was the instinctual. There was the most basic of basic necessities that has given birth to everything man has ever created. The one instinct that Allah has put into man to allow him to not just live, but prosper, and that is: survival.

True. So many silat styles today teach techniques that are deadly, but a deadly technique creates not a deadly fighter. Only the will to succeed, the drive to persevere, the instinct to survive is what provides context for the methods and buah we learn.

It is in the heat of survival that most effective martial arts are born. Unfortunately, survival is only the first phase of development, followed soon after by comfort and finally by prosperity. It is when these silat styles reach prosperity that they find it most difficult to maintain the quality of students.

When all they can think of is the quantity of participation and fees, of glamour and press releases, of power and politics, that is when the mighty shall fall. We have seen so many walk that path. We can only wonder who will be next.

Malaysians Urged To Take Up Silat For Self-Defence

KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 (Bernama) -- The Silat Cekak Hanafi Association (PSSCHM) hopes more Malaysians will take part in the 'Pandai Silat' campaign to learn how to protect themselves and their families.

PSSCHM communications and publicity chief Mohd Rais Abu Noh said the campaign, launched last year, had attracted 5,000 members nationwide and hoped more would join.

"We will continue our efforts to educate the public on how important it is to learn silat to keep ourselves safe from incidents such as snatch theft, threats and robbery," he told Bernama Saturday.

Mohd Rais added that this type of silat was free from elements of black magic, so parents need not worry about sending their children to learn this method of self-defence.

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