The unsolved history.

October 24, 2007

tomatoinc made a very interesting comment in my Hang Tuah post. It is long but informative and I thought it deserve a post of its own.

what you have written is no controversy at all. If you have analysed the “official” history of malaysia and tanah melayu in general, you’ll realize a strong message of “nationalistic” and “malay-hood” where in reality, malaysia has always been a mixed basket nation.

Apart from Hang Tuah’s blind loyalty message, it has been speculated that The “Hang” brothers are actually from China, who came as bodyguards of Hang Li Po. It was also noted that in the written history of Tanah melayu then, such as the Malay Annals, there is no explicit mention of Hang Tuah and his merits.

Further dissertation of our nation’s “glory” history or at least our secondary textbooks will reveal a strong emphasis on the islamization of the country, where as, the influence of hindusm, sankrits, bugis, srivijaya, china, siam are all downplayed. British colonialism was played as an evil force, where as, there have been occasions where they were rightly in abolishing slavery, unruly tax, organised towns/economy etc etc.

Yes, history is written by the victor. But in these days, it seems like our history is just another political tool by our political master (whom themselves have not studied the actual history of the country).

There are a lot more un-written history that needed to be retold:
1) May 13th
2) operasi lalang
3) Bank BUmiputera scandal
4) Reformasi movement
5) labour unions and left wings efforts in gainin independence
6) the undeniable roles of PKM (communist) in accelerating our independence
7) the 1947 hartal organised by putera-acmja

welcoem to the real world.

Sigh… if only history is taught in this way during my schooling days then no one will ever complain Sejarah is boring.

Posted in mystery