KOTA KINABALU, June 14 -- Award-winning Malaysian filmmaker Nadira Ilana (pic) said Sabah's creative industry was deliberately set back by the National Cultural Policy of 1971, stripping Sabahans of the cultural and linguistic freedoms needed to build a thriving arts sector.

"The creative industries in Sabah was 'sabotaged'. We actually did have a creative industry, the beginnings of it, from the '50s when the BBC introduced technologies like radio and cameras.

Sabahans were making our own documentaries in the 1970s," she said at the Daily Express Creative Minds Forum 2026, to spotlight and celebrate the voices shaping Sabah's creative landscape.

The event was held at Oitom restaurant and moderated by Daily Express Senior Journalist Ri...