Ruminations

Penyengat I

Di mana tempat mentari jatuh?
Di balik Penyengat, di hujung laut,
Di mana tempat bahasa tumbuh?
Di hujung kalam, di tubir mulut.

Where do the rays of the sun perish?
Behind Penyengat, in the seas westward,
Where would our tongue fruitfully flourish?
At the tip of the pen; in the spoken word.

***

The man was persistent. I tried to fend him off by trying to seem like I knew my way around and that I had done this a thousand times before. Inwardly, I cursed myself for not sticking to my usual practice of trying to blend in with the locals. Wearing a tight T-shirt, a pair of calf-length denim shorts together with leather-looking sandals and wielding a shiny digital camera, I stood out like a sore thumb in a crowd of school children, fishermen and village housewives coming back from their weekly grocery shopping. I might as well have carried a gigantic placard saying “I am a tourist. Please come and rip me off.”

Bintan: Memories

I will tell you a story, as I heard it from my father, and he from his. I will tell it to you, lest the lore of our people be forgotten and the memories of our ancestors be in vain.

Kota Gelanggi

They found a long lost city in Johor. And all historians can't even begin to speak about the possible implications. Could the city really predate Borobudur and Angkor Wat? Could it really be the Kota Gelanggi alluded to in Sejarah Melayu? All history books on the history of the Malay people may become obsolete, and some of the theories which are at the moment on the periphery of historical discourse may be validated.

Could Kota Gelanggi be yet another kingdom that vied with Sri Vijaya and early polities for the position as the inheritor of the ancient Melayu kingdom? Or could it be just another Sri Vijayan capital before the flowering of Palembang? An inscription in Southern India enumerates a list of kingdoms that were pillaged and attacked by the Chola kings. Which one of them was Gelanggi? What kind of people lived in Gelanggi? Were they even ethnically Malay? Or only had cultural allegiance to the long-lost kingdom of Melayu? Did they know the joys of ulam and belacan?

How blessed I am to live during such exciting times. Hopefully they'll unearth some answers in my lifetime.

Remembering Kataha: A Pilgrimage to Lembah Bujang

The ancient ruins of the Bujang Valley lie still. Mute and voiceless. And yet, there are those who say that they speak. They whisper of long-forgotten wars and fierce battles. Of the joys and woes of those who once walked in their shadows. Of prosperous merchants from faraway lands. Of bygone glories of an ancient kingdom. They hint at fragmented recollections so old that even the eldest of our elders might disown them.

It was in the hope of seeking these broken memories that I embarked on that lonesome journey to the desolate district of Merbok, in the state of Kedah that fine sunny morning. As I negotiated the unmarked and unfamiliar roads, I mused: will I hear the bricks and stones of the Bujang Valley murmuring their secrets? Will they tell me their story?

The Mirror in Tun Teja's Bedroom: A Historical Perspective of Puteri Gunung Ledang the Movie

I had my own images of 15th century Melaka as told by Sejarah Melayu and of the colourful characters that populate its hallowed pages. However, even allowing - by a wide margin - for the excesses of my own romantic ideals and my feeble pretensions as an amateur historian, I was not prepared for the letdown the movie Puteri Gunung Ledang had in store.

23 Million Malaysians and one History Department

I got this from Sun2surf.com today. We only have one history department in the whole country? I was truly shocked.

Educators neglecting history: Don
Llew-Ann Phang

KUALA LUMPUR: History is all but forgotten, laments historian Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Khoo Kay Kim who is concerned history has reached a sorry level.

What is taught in schools, he said, does not cultivate harmony in society.

Commenting on the lack of interest in history, especially on the part of the government, he said: "We have only one history department left in all of our 17 public universities and that is located in Universiti Malaya."

Commenting on plans by the Higher Education Ministry to introduce ethnic relation studies in universities, Khoo said: "History is knowledge and information ... You cannot introduce ethnic studies if children do not know history.

"And by history I do not mean what is taught in schools, as what is being taught there is only for examination purposes," he said after the official launch of the book The Foochows of Sitiawan: A Historical Perspective on Wednesdday.

"When Malaysians do not know and understand one another, how do you foster ethnic relations in society?" asked Khoo.

A lot of problems result from ignorance of each other, he said, and called for a new approach to teach history that does not lean towards politics.

"History now only involves political development. We should not only look for heroes but we also need to understand society," he said.

Khoo said the government should recognise the need for a revamp.

"Our prime minister said he would introduce a revolution but to date, I do not detect any major changes which are likely to produce results," he said, adding that education must address society's problems.

"I am always making suggestions on the issue, but they have never been taken up," he said.

Citing the rise in crime as an example, Khoo said: "People commit murder so easily, but the question is why. Arrests alone will not solve the problem. We need to study and find the solution but we are not doing it."

During the book launch, Khoo commended its author Shih Toong Siong on his effort, describing the publication as timely. He appealed for more sponsorship for historical research, saying "there is much to be learnt about people in our country, but so little is known so far."

Endnote to "Fashion Icons from 15th Century Melaka"

But the two of them were executed just before the Portuguese invaded. Some people are just jealous of good-looking and well-dressed people, I guess...

(This endnote is in reference to an earlier post.)

Fashion Icons from 15th Century Melaka

These guys are my idols. A thousand shirts? Changing into new clothes SIX times a day? Not to mention setting new trends in dressing that have remained to this day. And the way the Bendahara painstakingly tries to ensure that his headgear matches what he wears is not unlike the way I agonise every morning over what tie to wear with what shirt... Below is an excerpt from Sejarah Melayu about the two fashion icons of 15th century Melaka, Tun Hassan Temenggung and his father Bendahara Seri Maharaja.