World Heritage Site: Kempen Warisan Lenggong 2013

Abstract

Kempen Warisan Lenggong 2013 is a social campaign organized by final year students in
Persuasive Communication, School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). This is
the first campaign done outside of USM and Penang Island. Famously known as one of the
world heritage sites in Malaysia, Lenggong Valley, Perak had been recognized by the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on 30th June 2012 as the
fourth World Heritage Site. The campaign was done to raise the awareness among the local
students on the importance of conserving and preserving Lenggong Valley as the heritage and
the historical site as well as create an awareness towards the recognition of being one of the
World Heritage Sites. Furthermore, the Kempen Warisan Lenggong was initiated to foster a
sense of ownership among students and also to increase the involvement of the students in the
efforts of maintaining the World Heritage Site status in Lenggong Valley.
A baseline research was done earlier prior to the campaign, in order to identify problems or
issues especially on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of local students towards Lenggong.
175 students from three different schools participated in the survey. The research found that
local students had low levels of knowledge and understanding especially on the recognition and
the importance of Lenggong Valley as one of the World Heritage Site. Some respondents were
not even aware about the recognition at all. Only 5.7% of the respondents knew about the
recognition given towards Lenggong Valley. More than half of the respondents (58.3%) were
unsure that they would want to continue to stay at Lenggong after they finished their studies.
The main reason was because they could not see any job opportunities available in Lenggong
valley since it is a rural area.
Therefore, various activities have been planned for Kempen Warisan Lenggong 2013 from
December to May 2013. ‘High School Attack’ exploration series at Sekolah Menengah
Kebangsaan Sultan Azlan Shah, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tan Sri Abdul Aziz and
Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Dato’ Ahmad was successfully held on 19th and 20th March
2013. Several activities were carried out during the ‘High School Attack’ exploration series, such
as promoting the Photography Contest with the theme ‘Kehidupan Di Lenggong’, Scrapbook
Competition with the theme ‘Lenggong Tanggungjawab Saya’ and also Explorace ‘Jejak
Warisan Lenggong’. The explorace was designed to educate students on Lenggong in a fun
way, using the edutainment approach. This exploration series had attracted over 700 entries
from the two schools. Participants were students from Form 1 to Form Upper 6. Other than that,
a website and a Facebook fan page of this campaign had been created to disseminate the
information about Lenggong to the people Bookmarks, button badges, t-shirts, banners, flyers, posters, videos and a song about Lenggong has been produced as well. This campaign was
well promoted through radio station, Perak.FM, TV1 news channel and also some local
newspapers.
The highlight of this campaign was the event called ‘Sedetik Mengimbau Warisan’officated by
YBhg. YB Dato’ Shamsul Anuar bin Nasarah, state Member of Parliamet for Lenggong. The
event was held at the Dewan Serbaguna Kota Tampan, Lenggong on 11 May 2013. Also
present were Profesor Dr Mohd Mokhtar Saidin, the director of Pusat Penyelidikan Arkeologi
Global (PPAG), USM, Dr Bahiyah Omar as representative of the Dean from School of
Communications, USM, Mr. Mohd Nazaruddin bin Mohd Yusoff, Chief Executive Officer at
KPerak, Mr. Mohd Syahrin bin Abdullah, officer at Jabatan Warisan Negara, Mr. Noor Ekhsan
bin Baharuddin, Secretary of Lenggong District Council, village headmen, sponsors, the media,
lecturers and students. The purpose of the event was to give recognition to the sponsors and
prizes to students involved in activities throughout this campaign. KPerak was the main sponsor
and contributed RM10,000 for this campaign. The campaign was also supported and sponsored
by the Honourable Dato' Shamsul Anuar bin Nasarah, Lenggong District Council, Penang state
government office, Global Archaeological Research Centre USM, Division of Industry and
Community Network (DICN) USM, Student Affairs and Development Division (BHEPP) USM,
School of Communication USM, Malaysia Perak Information Department, and local schools in
Lenggong.