An Acceptance and Exclusion of Malaysian Folktales Based on Established Qualifying Factors to Create a Malaysian Folktale Classification System for Safeguarding Purpose

As one of Malaysia’s intangible cultural heritages, it is admitted that Malaysian folktales are laden with identities and voices of the past generations. Such qualities of beckon it to be systematically preserved but it is noted that thus far, such endeavour is countable if not absent at all in this country. Therefore, to counter such issue, a study was conducted with an aim to safeguard such heritage via a structural classification of folktale systematically. However, before the classification took place, an identification of Malaysian folktales in a literary form as data is imperative. The identification is crucial because it determines whether the data collected in the form of folklore required for the study which is folktale. In the context of the study, such task was guided by an integration of two qualifying factors: an operational definition and an ownership of the folktales. As the centre of this article, the method of identification revealed the Malaysian folktales accepted and excluded to be structurally classified for systematic safeguarding.


Introduction
Currently, the notion of cultural heritage has broadened and broken the mould of tangible artefact because (UNESCO, n.d) firmly addresses that cultural heritage also embraces an intangible counterpart. The intangible cultural heritage or in a popular culture labelled as folklore personifies an identity of a community and its culture (UNESCO, 1989)(. Pieces of folklore can be made of dance, music, song, and story and the latter piece survives through time and generations in a form known as folktale (Chee, 2005;Mohd et al., 2001). Folklore, in the form of prose narrative, exists as folktale, legend, and myth (Bascom, 1965). Such heritages persist through time for many generations carrying values and messages weaved with cultural identities, and they work as platforms that permit communications between generations (Penjore, 2005).
In this period where technology is king, a folktale is a precious heritage that has to be safeguarded to avoid complete disappearance consumed by globalisation and profit making entertainment (Dorji, 2009). If it were employed prudently, there is a high chance that it brings many boons to the society. Such boons encompassed moral values, attitude shifts, self-endurance and wise decision-making among many and these qualities serve to foster a development of a country with exceptional cultural values ( (Babalola and Onanuga, 2012;Kirmani and Frieman, 1997). The safeguarding of folklore consists of six stages: identification, conservation, preservation, dissemination, protection, and international collaboration. The initial stage involves a few suggestions, and one of the prominent ones is a creation of register which the current study achieved through systematic classification. Systematic classification of a folktale is an avenue to identify and populate folktales methodically, and it is parallel to UNESCO's recommendation in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (UNESCO, 2003). Malaysia was yet to commence the folktale classification when other countries had such as China, Japan, and Spain to name a few (Abd, 2005). Thus, this study initiated the creation of Malaysian Folktale Classification System to safeguard the fading folktales of Malaysia systematically. In order to classify, it was vital for the study to have an ample collection of Malaysian folktales as data for they are the foundations of the classification system. Therefore, the following section elaborates on the qualifying factors that determine the acceptance and exclusion of the folktales collected.

Qualifying Factors of Folktales
It is important to have enough sample of folktales before classification commences. However, it is found that there are no hard rules regarding the size of folktale's sample. Nevertheless, it is evidently stated that a minimum amount of text is needed to making valid inference in a study conducted (Jason, 2000;Propp, 1998). To cite an instance, a collection of 27 folktales were analysed in a structural study of Burmese folktales but yet significant results were obtained (Lwin, 2010). Propp (1998) adds to the notion that analysis of a large folktale data is unnecessary and the collection of folktale can be stopped once new patterns are no longer emerging. According to him, 100 folktales are sufficient to start the analysis. Baughman (1966) also emphasises that the collection of folktales must stop at some point for the classification study to be published. In the context of the current study, four literary sources were chosen: Stories From Sarawak: Orang Ulu Stories,Stories From Sarawak: Orang Melanau Stories,366 A Collection of Malaysian Folk Tales,and Malaysian Fables,Folk Tales,and Legends and the total collected folktales were 426 (Munan, 2006;2007;Skeat and Gomez, 2012).
Once the samples of the Malaysian folktale were collected, the filtering task started. Two qualifying factors were instituted as the filter to ensure the data were in folktale form and belonged to Malaysia. The two qualifying factors were the operational definition developed in the study and the ownership of the folktales (Harun and Jamaludin, 2014). All the Malaysian folktales classified were filtered using the two qualifying factors. The first factor is presented in Table 1. There were five formal features of the operational definition of a folktale in the study, and all five must be met by the data collected to be deemed as a folktale. As for the second factor, the ownership was determined by the 13 states of Malaysia, and in the case, a folktale collected does not belong to any of the 13 states, it was considered as national folktale which means it belongs to Malaysia in general. Meanwhile, Figure 1 illustrates the rundown of the qualifying factors.  (Bascom, 1965;Thompson, 1951)

Belief
The tale is a fiction which means it is uncertain whether it occurred or otherwise in the past. Time The tale does not indicate an exact timeline of occurrences.

Place
The tale does not indicate any specific location of occurrences, or if it does, the location is fictional.

Attitude
The tale is a story without any religious, or ritual motivation. It ultimately delivers amusement and worth of moral.

Principal Character
The tale tells a story of adventure and voyage of human or non-human characters both of which able to assume diverse forms of appearances.

Acceptance and Exclusion of Malaysian Folktale
The 426 folktales were critically analysed using the two qualifying factors established to determine the acceptance and exclusion of folktales to be employed to create the Malaysian Folktale Classification System. As an outcome of the analysis, it is discovered that a total of 269 Malaysian folktales met the criteria of the qualifying factors thus accepted. Unfortunately, 157 of the folktales collected failed to meet the said criteria hence excluded. The frequencies of the accepted and excluded folktales is presented in Table-2 and Table-3 respectively according to the ownerships factor. From the frequency of the accepted and excluded folktales in Table-2 and Table 3, Table-4  and Table-5 show the titles for each of the accepted and excluded folktales respectively. Table-3 and Table-5 specifically provide the cause of exclusion for the Malaysian folktales collected based on the criteria of the two qualifying factors. The ensuing section discusses on the acceptance and exclusion of the Malaysian folktales.   The friendship of the squirrel and the creeping fish 6 How the python got his beautiful skin 2 The green horse 7 Jelenggai 3 The three princesses 8 Revenge 4 Who is wiser 9 The deer horn 5 For a stick of sugar-cane 10 The honest traveller 6 Gedembai 11 The lazy boy The ape's magic pot 3 The mother hen and the eagle 10 The clever son-in-law 4 Nuts and eggs 11 The kings favourite girl 5 Pearls from the seven seas 12 The missing gold 6 The bayan have escaped Ownership: Negeri Sembilan 7 The bull and the buffalo Folktale 8 The durian tree and the banana tree 1 Busu, the midget 9 The field of gold 2 The loyal tiger 10 The fierce geroda 3 Why elephants have small eyes 11 The flute player 4 An egg in the morning, a leaf in the evening 12 The foolish flying-ant 5 Breaking a promise 13 The old man and his crippled daughter 6 Bujang terboyoi 14 The rich miser 7 Honesty 15 The tale of Princess Jarum Emas 8 Si Kecil, the little one 16 The tarap tree and the pedada fruit 9 Sulung, the naughty boy 17 The water snake and the land snake 10 The faithful sister 18 Waiting for freedom 11 The fortune of si Malang

Discussions
From Table-2, it is apparent that the average distribution of the folktales among the Malaysia's states is approximately even. Nonetheless, it is also conceivable the two extremities in the distribution: National and Malacca. The highest and the lowest distributions belong to National and Malacca ownership correspondingly. Looking through the lens of this study, the folktales deemed as national were the ones that do not own by any of the 13 states in Malaysia. Some of the literary sources obtained plainly say that the folktales contained in the literature are national by nature without any associations to the 13 states. However, the lowest distribution of folktales in Malacca does not represent the scarcity of folk literature culture in the state of Hang Tuah. It is a possibility that the state is rich with verbal folktales but little efforts are being made to transcribed them in literary forms. Also, it is a likelihood that the qualifying factors employed in the study restricted the number of stories considered as a folktale.
From Table-3, it is evident a sum of 157 folktales failed to meet the criteria set by the qualifying factors. Regarding the first factor which is the operational definition established the bulk of the excluded folktales do not fulfil the formal features of Place, Attitude, and Belief. The formal feature Place underlines that a folktale is supposed to be void of a specific place of the event in the body of the folktale itself. Still, the reference to a fictional place is acceptable for instance the country of Chempaka Sari in the national folktale of The Unfortunate Pak Kadok. Additionally, if the place appeared in the folktale is fictional but akin to an existent place in Malaysia, it must be excluded as well. The analysis conducted was grounded on the manifest meaning which presents a clear, direct, and straightforward interpretation of the folktales. Subsequently, a fictional place that bears a resemblance to the existent place in Malaysia cannot be accepted.
Similarly, the folktales collected must be free of any religious or sacred motifs in its content. For example, the folktale God Who is Just conveys the story of a boy who dares God's fairness to his creations. This kind of folktale is also excluded as part of the data to be classified. As for Belief, the folktales is of absolute fiction and have never come to pass. Skeat and Gomez (2012) transcribed and collected a folktale designated as Danjai and the Were-Tiger's Sister, and in the transcription, it was unmistakably stated that the story is a non-fiction and has transpired in the past. Palpably this sort of folktale does not meet the operational definition of the study thus excluded.
Pertain to the second factor (ownership), after an in-depth review; it is established that some of the folktales transcribed and collected have an uncertain origin and several are not even Malaysian. One of the folktales is The Tune that Makes the Tiger Drowsy that its source is unidentified while there are folktales that were erroneously acknowledged as Malaysian but, in reality, owns by another country such as The Elephant Princess and the Prince that is possessed by Thailand. As a result, this kind of folktales was also excluded from being classified.

Conclusions
The primary objective of this study was to create the Malaysian folktale classification system for safeguarding purpose. The classification was conducted based on the structure of the folktales. Nevertheless, before the classification can be created, it is imperative to ascertain the data collected was in the correct folklore form: folktale. In the setting of the study, the task was accomplished via the two qualifying factors established. With the qualifying factors as the filters, the study succeeded in obtaining 269 accepted Malaysian folktales and excluded 157 folktales that were deemed as not in the correct form of folklore the study required. With the accepted Malaysian folktales acquired, the structural classification proceeded accordingly for the systematic safeguarding one of Malaysia's intangible cultural heritages.