The Chairman of the Perbadanan Muzium Negeri Pahang contributed to Panel 2 of Day 1 ‘Constructing Pahang’s Maritime History’.
This paper examines the Pahang Maritime Museum as a site of soft power and nation branding, exploring how maritime heritage is mobilised to project identity, legitimacy, and modernity in contemporary Malaysia. Situated at the confluence of history, culture, and statecraft, the museum serves not only as a custodian of coastal and riverine memory but also as a stage for articulating narratives of national belonging and regional relevance. Drawing on theories of heritage diplomacy and cultural representation, this study analyses the museum’s curatorial strategies, exhibition narratives, and institutional framing within Malaysia’s broader maritime imaginary. It argues that the Pahang Maritime Museum exemplifies how heritage initiatives can operate as instruments of soft power—linking local histories of navigation and trade to global discourses of connectivity and nationhood. In doing so, the museum becomes both a vessel of memory and a tool of projection, shaping how Malaysia situates itself in the maritime world of the twenty-first century.
