Dr Rahim Said Proposes a Policy Framework and Comparative Analysis to Alleviate the Terengganu Songket
Few fabrics carry a nation’s soul as vividly as Terengganu songket — a weave of gold, heritage, and identity. Centuries old, culturally sovereign, and economically significant, it now faces the same existential threats that haunt every artisanal tradition without institutional guardianship: counterfeits flooding the market, knowledge fading with ageing masters, and no authoritative body to tell the world what is real.
The proposed Royal Songket Centre of Excellence is designed to confront all three challenges — authenticity, continuity, and commercial integrity — through a model that has proven its worth elsewhere.
Solving the Counterfeit Problem and the Global Parallel — Murano’s Consorzio Promovetro
The closest institutional analogue is not a textile body but a glassmakers’ consortium on a small Italian island. The comparison is instructive precisely because it involves a utilitarian craft — glass vessels, chandeliers, decorative ware — that evolved into a cultural and commercial icon worth protecting through serious institutional architecture.
Founded in 1985, Consorzio Promovetro Murano grew from a group of glassmakers who realised that without collective action, the thousand-year-old art of Murano glass would be lost to imitation and neglect. Today, it represents over thirty artisan and industrial companies and includes the two main trade associations of Venice’s glass sector.
The crisis it faced was stark: at least 60% of products sold online and 50 per cent sold in shops worldwide were labelled “Murano glass” but were not made in Murano. Terengganu songket faces an analogous — arguably worse — problem, with machine-woven imitations marketed as hand-crafted originals.
Murano’s Four Pillars — and Their Songket Parallels
Promovetro’s success rests on four interlocking pillars that map almost perfectly onto the vision for Terengganu’s Royal Songket Centre of Excellence.
1. Authentication and Trademark
Murano created the Vetro Artistico® Murano trademark to protect consumers and guarantee originality. Using digital tracking, each artefact carries an identity card that reconstructs its creation process. Supported by the Veneto Regional Government and the Chamber of Commerce of Venice, it ensures transparency and trust.
Songket parallel: A certification body empowered by Royal Assent and the Federal Gazette would issue the Songket Diraja Terengganu mark. Each certified piece would bear a tamper-proof, QR-enabled tag linking the weaver, loom, thread provenance, and date of completion — allowing a buyer in Tokyo or London to trace its lineage instantly.
2. Registry of Producers
Murano’s registry ties every certified piece to a specific master or furnace through numbered labels that cannot be removed intact.
Songket parallel: A global registry of Terengganu songket — encompassing living weavers and documented historical pieces in private collections, museums, and royal households — would serve as a cultural archive, provenance database, and market integrity tool. It would be the first of its kind for any Malaysian textile.
3. Exchange and Commercial Platform
Promovetro functions not only as a watchdog but also as a trading arm, participating in international fairs, organising trade missions, and forging commercial partnerships.
Songket parallel: The Centre would host an annual Bursa Songket Diraja — a curated exchange where certified weavers, collectors, fashion houses, and cultural institutions transact under one authenticated roof. This would enable price discovery, combat undervaluation, and position Terengganu songket as a serious luxury and heritage commodity, not a tourist souvenir.
4. Training and Knowledge Continuity
Promovetro collaborates with Ca’ Foscari University of Venice to ensure knowledge transfer through formal academic partnerships. Comparable institutions, such as the Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills at York Minster, have proven how structured apprenticeships preserve ancient crafts.
Songket’s parallel: The Centre would run a structured apprenticeship programme under certified Tukang Tenun masters, supported by partnerships with UiTM, UMT, or a dedicated craft faculty. Graduates would earn recognised qualifications — transforming songket weaving from a dying vocation into a viable career.
Why “Royal” Is Strategic, Not Ceremonial
The Royal designation does what Murano’s geography does for glass: it anchors authenticity in sovereign identity. Murano’s authority stems from its island monopoly decreed by the Republic of Venice in 1295 — a concentration of craft enforced for seven centuries.
The Terengganu royal imprimatur replicates that exclusivity in a Malaysian context. No other state can claim it; no machine in Guangzhou can manufacture it. The Royal prefix, backed by institutional authority, becomes the legal and reputational moat that protects the craft’s integrity.
Learning from the Murano Experience
Murano’s model was not without resistance. Some glass masters and manufacturers — including renowned brands like Venini and Barovier & Toso — rejected certification, believing their brand prestige sufficient or membership costs excessive.
The lesson for Terengganu is clear: the Centre’s value proposition must be compelling enough that master weavers want to join. Certification should open doors — to export markets, luxury retail, government procurement, and cultural diplomacy — that unregistered weavers cannot access. When the mark is worth more than the membership fee, participation becomes voluntary and enthusiastic.
Conclusion: From Heritage to Institution
Murano transformed a craft on the brink of extinction into a globally protected, commercially vibrant heritage industry. Terengganu songket possesses every advantage Murano glass had — and one more: a living royal house whose name, attached to this Centre, carries weight from Kuala Lumpur to the auction rooms of Christie’s.
Authenticity is not nostalgia. It is a strategy. And with the Royal Songket Centre of Excellence, Terengganu can prove that tradition, when protected by an institution, becomes the future itself.
The views expressed here are entirely those of the writer