PENANG, 2 February 2016 – Traditional healing practices using age-old techniques need to be given serious attention to prevent such local knowledge from being dismissed in the efforts to develop scholarly knowledge.

In representing the USM Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dato’ Dr. See Ching Mey said, the preservation and conservation of traditional treasures and practices need to be conducted in a serious manner to ensure that such rich traditions would not be lost in the current wave of modernisation.

She added further, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) as the university that has sustainability as its basis, truly supports the effort to preserve the local knowledge aspect in every field of knowledge.

“This seminar is held to share the knowledge relating to traditional healing practices, where such inherited knowledge would be lost in time if there is no effort taken to preserve it,” she stated when officiating the ‘Seminar Pemeliharaan Kearifan Tempatan dalam Amalan Pengubatan’ (Seminar on the Preservation of Local Knowledge in Healing Practices) here recently.

She said that, the seminar is held with the hope that it would benefit all, as the invited panel speakers are those with the expertise and experiences in the field of traditional healing practices.

Meanwhile, the Chairperson of the Local Knowledge Group, Professor Dr. Badaruddin Mohamed said that local knowledge comprised of a group having the information, guidelines, advices or a string of knowledge relating to living strategies, functioning as tools to assist in the continuity and dynamism of certain communities or societies.

He explained that, the source would usually be in the form of oral traditions, shared from one generation to another or from formal or informal written sources.

“This seminar would be held in a series involving a number of universities, which also represent different local knowledge groups, each looking at a different subject and is hoped to have the capacity to share useful information with society concerning the local knowledge,” he said.

Added Badaruddin, cooperation from the industry especially PETRONAS, in strengthening age-old traditions and customs is greatly appreciated and should be emulated by others, for them to come forward and take part in such collaborations.

“In the evening of the first day, there will be a presentation of ‘Main Teri’ which is a traditional healing ritual practice, sponsored by PETRONAS to ensure that the tradition will not be lost in history,” he explained further.

The seminar, organised by the Local Knowledge Secretariat was attended by more than 100 participants from the local universities such as Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) and Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) among others.

The seminar was also attended by the Dean, USM School of the Arts, Assoc Professor Mohamad Omar Bin Bidin, and the Local Knowledge Group Coordinator, Dr. Norizan Esa.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin

Text: Syuhada bt Abd Aziz / Photos: Zamani Abd. Rahim