I have always wondered why the traditional highbrow art form called Mak Yong was banned in the Islamic state of Kelantan.

I have also asked this: who do the court dances or tarian istana serve? The dichotomy is obvious: the dancers dance and the king and the queen get entertained. There is a class relationship forged, harmoniously.

But there is a deep structure of inert insensibility, imprisonment, and inequality underneath - one that characterises the world of the dominator and the dominated, of the powerful and the powerless. Beneath this lies the structural violence to be preserved. It is about power, knowledge, and ideology. There is a class and caste dichotomy at play.