We're History

Up till now, I was still wondering, why Malaysians more knowledgeable in other civilization histories more than our own? Is it our lack of passion? Malaysians were just…..don’t care lor? Or was it the Education Ministry at fault? More conspiracy thought was, is there someone (particularly the British Empire) that doesn’t want us to know about our past?

I’ve started to wonder about this when I heard the truth about our national hero, Hang Tuah with his 4 sworn siblings, Hang Jebat, Hang Kasturi, Hang Lekir And Hang Lekiu (I was in Form 2 if I’m not mistaken). Hang Jebat was accused to be a traitor, frustrated by the Sultan’s decision to execute Hang Tuah for a crime that Hang Tuah didn’t commit. Hang Jebat opposed the crown, raising a coup against Sultan and make himself king. Hang Tuah, who was actually been hidden by Tun Perak (the Prime Minister), been pardoned by the Sultan and was commanded to kill Hang Jebat. Hang Tuah did and that’s the end of the life of the tyrant (who actually been there in the first place to avenge the “death” of Hang Tuah……ironic?). The catch is, it’s not Hang Jebat that raise the coup, it’s Hang Kasturi! Now, why would someone want to do that?

It’s actually connected with the Malay’s culture itself. You see, the Malays were highly sensitive about other person’s feeling. Traditionally, they were not famous for any outspoken behaviour. They were very polite and every word that came out of their mouth was made to not offend the listener’s heart. Kasturi was actually a name of a flower with a beautiful fragment. The name itself got it’s own beauty grace. Therefore, the Malays thought that it would do no good to pollute such a name and hence, the name of the person above was “chosen” to be the “bidan terjun”.

The other thing that I thought was really questionable was the story itself. Every historical fact should have at least 2 independent documents to verify the stories. I mean, take the above stories again, a very loyal servant of the Sultan, who was so loyal he even doesn’t bear any grudge to the one that ordered him killed. He was so loyal that he even agreed to kill his childhood friend that he called brother, who committed the act of treason because of him! Does that sound bullshit? I don’t know, it does sounds fishy though. The stories come from Tun Sri Lanang who was a writer during those times. However, there was another book called Sejarah Melayu who told completely different sets of stories. In its version, Hang Tuah was not the hero, and he’s a coward who runs at the start of battle, the hero in the book was Tun Perak. Two different books with two completely different stories, now, which one told the truth?

(Frankly, I don’t know. To whoever reading this, I wrote this to present the fact that I know of and to let you readers think, not to jeopardise the credibility of any writers. Truthfully, I’ve got a high respect for both of them)

Look at the present days for example, I’m no politician, I hate politics, for me, most of them are the same, all talk and no shows, I believed that with greater power come greater corruption if you’re not careful, if you know what I mean. But let’s look at the Malays right now; most of them still followed UMNO’s lead. Why? Most reasons I heard of was UMNO’s been here since the independent day and our ancestors have been voting them since. Sounds familiar? Was it because most Malays have their mind planted by Hang Tuah’s story? However wrong your leader are, follow him, as that what Hang Tuah will do. Was that the right mindset? I’ve got nothing against voters that vote because they really believed in UMNO’s or for any reasons. The same goes to PAS voters. If you’re voting for PAS because your dad and uncle do that, stop it! You have the right to think, there’s no more slave in the world and definitely not here in Malaysia. Sometimes I do thought the stories put in our history textbook was a tactic used by the politicians to secure their vote. Well, I could be right, I could be wrong.

Not everyone knows the truth about our history. The facts about it were actually here in Malaysia itself, mostly kept in the National Archive. My question was, why kept it hidden? Why put a totally wrong info in the textbook for the school children to read and memorise for their exam? Why didn’t the ministry of education let the truth out? What was the effect to anyone if the truth did get out?

Not everyone knows during the Malacca siege, the Malaccans already have muskets and cannons to fight against the Portuguese. Till right now, I was still searching, despite all that, how could Malacca fall and after so many years, hundred even, the Malaccans never managed to reclaim back their land? They have the resources they need to fight back, it’s not like throwing sticks to a full-armed men, both armies were well equipped so what’s the catch?

How many of us thoughts that Kedah was weak? Being plundered by the Siamese as if there’s nothing on Kedah except a bare naked lady waiting to be rape. The fact is Kedah have, up to a certain point, managed to invade Siam, though the siege was not that long, but that shows Kedah do fight back, not in full submission all the time.

How many of us heard of Panglima Awang a.k.a Henry the Black? There’s no bulllshit in that story as far as I’m concern. There’s an Italian’s diary mentioned about him and the famous Magellan, and in the Spanish Museum itself his name was included as an attendee during one of the Spanish King’s ceremony. If Awang (or whoever his malay name is) managed to come back to Tanah Melayu after the incident at Philippines (Magellan been mutinied by his First Mate, Awang revenged Magellan and no one sees him again), he will be the first person to travel around the world instead of Magellan.

Then the question of was Bugis the only pirates in Malays peninsular area? That’s stereotyping as far as I can tell. It’s the same as thinking that all Malays were lazy. What I know was most of the Bugis people were mercenaries and mostly hired by the Sultans or merchants as bodyguards or shock troop in their army.
There’s so much to know about our history as far as I can tell. There’s a lot to be learn and appreciated. There’s a new light been shade about Chinese government during the ancient years. I think it’s about time to shade ours.