Old and new traditions clash in Malaysian Islamic city

KOTA BARU, Malaysia, Jan 8 (Reuters) Osman Bakar is a specialist in Malaysia's traditional art of shadow puppetry, but fears his craft is flickering out under curbs imposed by strict Islamist rulers in the country's northeastern state of Kelantan.

''I have lost a source of income,'' said Osman, who has been a drummer for 20 years at performances of wayang kulit, as the art of puppetry, based on myths from India's Hindu epics, is known.

Wayang kulit is slowly fading out in the province following years of restrictions on this ancient form of puppetry, which dates back centuries before Islam spread to the region and whose origins are derived from Hinduism.

Osman, a former soldier, now supports his eight children teaching silat, a traditional Malay martial art. Many of his puppeteer friends have given up the art or moved away.

Two years ago, the Islamist party Parti Islam se Malaysia, which controls the mostly rural Kelantan province with a population of 1.5 million people, declared the capital Kota Baru an Islamic city.

The move was the latest in a series of changes PAS has ushered in since taking power there in 1990, as it seeks to discourage behaviour it considers against the tenets of Islam.

It has shut down bars serving alcohol, which is forbidden under Islamic law, instituted separate checkout queues for men and women in supermarkets, and clamped down on traditional performing arts that it considers breaches Islamic law.

Although Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, half its population of about 26 million is non-Muslim and the national government, run by a coalition led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), is secular.

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