Productivity of the Common as Property in the Context of the Symbolic Propertization of Indigenous Knowledge: The Biopolitics of Traditional Malay Wau Bulan and Wau Kucing Kelantanese Kite Making as State Symbolic Property

Abstract

This essay examines factors responsible for the increase of productivity in traditional Malay wau bulan and wau kucing kite-making, indigenous to the Malaysian state of Kelantan and appropriated by the state as a common biopolitical production and symbolic property. This increase in productivity means increased accessibility of the commons among the community, achieved through state economic support and efforts by the community and state to promote the kite-making craft. Such increased productivity contradicts Michael Hardt’s reasoning that property’s productivity is usually reduced. Extending Hardt’s theory to Ernesto Laclau’s ideas on the relationship between the particular and the universal, the essay argues that the symbolic propertization of Kelantan kite making does not reflect a distinction between the kites’ qualities as common versus symbolic property. Input from selected authoritative kite-making practitioners and recent cultural memory shows that the Kelantan community benefits economically from the state’s appropriation of its traditional kites.

Key Words:

• Biopolitics
• Commons
• Michael Hardt
• Ernesto Laclau
• Karl Marx

Acknowledgments

Johan Awang Bin Othman would like to express deep appreciation to fellow author Eddy Izuwan Bin Musa for his contribution, advice, and feedback, without which the logic and substantiation of the arguments on which this essay is premised would not have been entirely viable and possible. The authors would also like to acknowledge the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for the Transdisciplinary Research Grant Scheme (TRGS project code TRGS/1/2016/USM/02/4/1), which enabled the fieldwork and production of field texts as invaluable resources for this essay.

Notes

1 Pictures and images are all taken and produced by Eddy Izuwan Bin Musa.

2 “MAS Launches New Corporate Image,” New Straits Times, 16 October 1987, https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZuM0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=h5ADAAAAIBAJ&pg=3721,3425395&hl=en.

3 See “Our Story,” Malaysia Airlines website, accessed 21 September 2021. https://www.malaysiaairlines.com/au/en/about-us/our-story.html. And see “The Wau Bulan Carries a Unique Cultural Heritage in Malaysia,” Malaysia Airlines Facebook page, 30 August 2020, https://www.facebook.com/malaysiaairlines/posts/the-wau-bulan-carries-a-unique-cultural-heritage-in-malaysia-since-the-15th-cent/3152654388181066.

4 “Malaysia Airline Launches FLY MALAYSIA Campaign,” Malaysia Airline news, 17 October 2019, https://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/news-article/2019/fly-malaysia-campaign.html.

5 “RM1 (Fourth Series) Polymer Banknote—June 2012,” Bank Negara Malaysia, accessed 21 September 2021, https://www.bnm.gov.my/-/rm1-fourth-series-polymer-banknote-june-2012.

6 “Petikan Media: Festival Wau Antarabangsa Jadi Destinasi Pelancongan,” Persatuan Peminat, Pemain & Pembuat Wau/Layang-Layang Negeri Kelantan blog [Kelantan State Fans, Players & Kite Makers Association], accessed 1 September 2020, https://pelayangkelantan.blogspot.com/p/petikan-media.html.

7 Personal communications with the authors. The face to face interview session was held on the 19th of April 2019 at the home of the president of the Kelantan Kite Society and lasted around 3 hours. Translations from Malay are by the authors.

8 “Corypha utan,” Palm and Cycad Societies of America wiki, accessed 15 October 2020, http://www.pacsoa.org.au/wiki/Corypha_utan.

9 The term “complicit” is adopted from Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s literary metaphor that illustrates the idea of “being folded together” or being part of the other’s “texture.” See Shaikh (2007, 184).

10 “Kelantan Has No Plans to Lift Ban on Menora,” New Straits Times, 27 January 2020, https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/01/560086/kelantan-has-no-plans-lift-ban-menora.

11 “Koinobori,” Koinobori-Japan website, accessed 15 October 2020, https://koinobori-japan.jp/koinobori.html.

12 “Nas Daily Accused of ‘Exploiting’ Indigenous Tattoo Artist in the Philippines,” TRT World, 12 August 2021, https://youtu.be/kKsEQpaiads.