Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in Malaysia: a legal analysis on the national heritage act 2005

Generally, there exist three distinct categories of heritage recognised under the law namely, tangible heritage, intangible heritage and natural heritage. The alertness of the unpredictability of the categories and the interconnectedness in heritage is growing. In the light of the scenario, Malaysia introduced National Heritage Act in March 1, 2006 replacing two previous Act which are Treasurer Trove Act 1987 and Relics and Antiquities Act 1976. This Act is based on UNESCO Convention to Safeguard the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Hence, this paper aims to analyse the sufficiency of provision relating to the safeguard of intangible cultural heritage in the National Heritage Act 2005. This article adopts the doctrinal analysis by examining the existing primary and secondary materials gathered from multiple sources especially the National Heritage Act 2005, other legal and non-legal literatures relating to the intangible cultural heritage in Malaysia. This paper concludes that although the current legal provisions existing in National Heritage Act 2005 are still inadequate and there are still rooms for improvement to better safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage in Malaysia.