Saturday, 28 January 2012
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A Plan of Action

ON a Sunday morning in mid-November last year, a host of civil society groups gathered ...read more

Picnic beramai-ramai

Saturday last week, just about when the sun was hottest, the management at Suria KLCC ...read more

Not the last goodbye - 16th July 2011

By Farida Jivamala Ibrahim Teoh Beng Hock : death number 1804;  died while in custody on ...read more

IT WAS AWESOME!

IRON resolve. Classy. Principled. Compassionate.   BERSIH 2.0 on July 9th will be remembered for many ...read more

A Plan of Action Picnic beramai-ramai Not the last goodbye - 16th July 2011 IT WAS AWESOME! The Road Leading to Stadium Merdeka - 9th July 2011

Events

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Feb 2, 9am: Stand with family of Teoh Beng Hock

It's already 2012, could the PM please tell us when the Beng Hock case will...

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Not My Life: A CNN Freedom Project Documentary

A powerful, new documentary film depicting the horrifying and dangerous practices of human trafficking and...

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Compass Points

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End acts of violence against peaceful assembly

BERSIH 2.0 is gravely concern with the gangster-like violent actions taken by a group of...

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Samseng serang ABU, seorang cedera dibelasah

Oleh Helen Ang (helenang.wordress.com) Dalam rakaman kekecohan di sebuah ceramah ‘Tamatkan Rejim Umno/BN’ semalam, kedengaran...

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13GE Demand #1: Eradicate Institutional Racism

By Kua Kia Soong, Director of SUARAM, With the 13th general elections just round the...

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How Myths can be Necessary and also Dangerous PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 19 January 2012 23:00

farish2By Dr Farish A. Noor

First published in author's Facebook page

 

Over the last two days I have been interviewed three times by three different media publications over the question of where I stand on the latest silly debate in Malaysia, namely the question of whether Hang Tuah existed or not, and whether it ought to be taught in schools. This is, I have to confess, one of the smaller histories of Malaysia that has been in the footnotes of my mind for ages, and I recall how I was once asked by an elderly gentleman during a forum discussion in KL in 1998 if it was true that Hang Tuah was of Chinese origin.


Let me state what little I know of the matter, and make my stand relatively clearer:


Firstly, I dont know or care if Hang Tuah was Chinese, Malay, Japanese, Eskimo or Serbo-Croat. He could have been a mix of all of the above with a Martian wife and a Venusian mother-in-law for all I care.


Secondly, no, there is no record of the keris Taming Sari either, and every antique shop that claims to have one is lying to get your money;


Thirdly, please note that in the Hikayat Hang Tuah we also have stories of kerises that fly, magical potions, demons and monsters, and a magical bean that when swallowed allows you to speak all languages. (A bit like the Babel fish in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy methinks.)

Read more...
 

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