Thursday, January 26, 2012

Hang Tuah

Hang Tuah may be a myth but Rosmah Mansor is certainly a legend!


- Docs, a Malaysiakini reader


The concept of, and desire for heroes represent universal values. Heroes may of course be mythical or actual historical personalities.

The female equivalent of a hero is heroine, though for some moronic perception of equality, some Americans (women I suppose) don’t like such feminine equivalents, for example, 'actress'. So for the last several years, we hear of Hollywood’s Academy Awards being given to, the sheer stupidity of the description, “Best Actor in a leading female role” instead of just “Best Actress”. Does anyone see any issue of gender bias in the latter? I’m all for gender equality but the Yanks have gone bloody mad.

Anyway, back to topic of 'hero in a leading male role' wakakaka - Australian comedian Paul Hogan, known for his popular movie ‘Crocodile Dundee’, once jokingly remarked that Australians are so hard up for heroes that they even make a horse,
Phar Lap, into one.

So, do we Malaysians, in particular the Malays, feel the same way about Hang Tuah?

This bloke (Tuah) seems to pop up regularly, not so much in history or myth as in politics, though the most recent evocation of his name was by a historian, Professor Khoo Kay Kim.

The Prof raised Tuah’s name in the context of verifiable history. He was annoyed with non-scholarly infusion of myths and legends into Malaysian history as if those myths and legends were historical facts.

Myth or historical fact, Hang Tuah is course a Malay hero, probably the No 1 Dude in Malay culture, thus Prof Khoo’s assertion that Hang Tuah didn’t exist inevitably raises hackles for two reasons – I have just mentioned one, that of him stating Hang Tuah exists only as a character of fiction.

The second reason is an unfortunate one, he is Chinese (the Prof of course, though I’ll have something to say about Tuah being supposedly a Chinese) and Malays just don’t like non-Malays telling them their No 1 Hero is just a figment of their imagination.

Dr Azly Rahman wrote of the historical-cultural indoctrination of the Malays which began since the Malacca Sultanate, until their collective psyche, even until today, surrenders total obedience to the Rulers, believed to bestowed with Divine Rights - an indoctrination which was basically a master-slave narrative/relationship of the ruler and the ruled which must never be challenged.

Episodes such as Hang Tuah defeating his best friend and alleged arch traitor, Hang Jebat, invariably enhanced and fortified the indoctrination. Thus Tuah, by his unquestioning fealty to his liege Lord (despite the Sultan being a miserable tyrant who in the first place wanted Tuah dead, while best friend Jebat defended Tuah's honour) was designed to show the very epitome of the Malay hero, one totally loyal to his liege Lord regardless.

If Dr Azly’s opinion is to be accepted, then Tuah’s status (and belief in his existence) would have been further shored up by 500 years of the master-slave indoctrination of the Malays. Thus, I wasn’t surprised when Professor Emeritus Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman, president of the Malaysian Archaeologists Association, jumped up to defend the existence of Hang Tuah.

The Professor Emeritus informed that Tuah’s tomb lies in Tanjung Kling (in Malacca), which remains within (if any still exists) could provide DNA to confirm his factual existence.

I admit I am neither a historian nor a cultural expert, but I had always thought that Hang Tuah disappeared after he failed in his mission for the Sultan, namely, to convince Puteri Gunung Ledang to be the royal bride.

Apparently, being a loyal (and thus good) Melayu, he was so ashamed of his failure to his liege Lord that he chucked his keris, Taming Sari, into a river and swore only to return to Malacca if the keris floated up. Unfortunately for Malay-dom and our current debate on historical facts versus mythical legends, Gravity and Isaac Newton's apple prevented that, so poor Tuah walked off into the sunset, never to reappear.

However, fortunately for the Perak Sultanate, Taming Sari must have mysteriously floated up for one of their ancestors to retrieve and claim it as part of their royal heirloom, even today.

Apart from that mysterious tomb in Tanjung Kling, incidentally unnamed as admitted by the Professor Emeritus, even if a DNA check is permitted by Islamic religious authority (assuming the DNA check is not conducted by our world famed DNA experts wakakaka), how can we link the corpse’s DNA to someone to prove it’s Hang Tuah.

Surely, we aren’t going to check the DNA against some so-claimed descendant of Tuah, because if they’re indeed descendants of Tuah, then why are we still checking the DNA to prove Tuah existed as a historical person?

In case you don’t follow me, surely descendants of Tuah, being who they are, must have descended from Tuah. Can there be Tuah's descendants if Tuah didn't exist? It’s like saying we need to confirm whether Tun Razak existed by checking his DNA against those of his descendants, for example, Najib wakakaka.

In Peninsula Malaysia, it is highly sensitive to question Tuah’s existence because that challenges the very essence of Malay culture, unless of course it’s UMNO doing the questioning as it did in 1992 when it blasted the supposedly hallowed status of the Malay rulers to kingdom come, and in a middle-fingered gesture to those royalty, elevated Jebat from arch traitor to No 1 Hero, while relegating ultra monarchist Tuah into 5th place, I suppose, as a mere palace sycophant.

UMNO political needs are of course highly flexible where the bashed up rulers are now back in favour, and once again royalist Tuah is back as the hero while republican Jebat resumes his old role as a villain.

But the politics of Malaysia, infected adversely by lamentable racism and thus ethnic one-upmanship, have seen perverted delights and gleeful smirks among some non-Malays in asserting that Hang Tuah and mateys were imperial Chinese guards (even eunuchs) escorting Princess Hang Li Po during her stay in Malacca, when she was bestowed by the Chinese Emperor as a royal bride for the Malacca Sultan.

Even our dear RPK joined in recently, when he twisted the Chinese-Tuah kungfu sabre further in by suggesting that Tuah’s famed prowess in silat could well be some form of superior Chinese kungfu wakakaka.

I bet Malays’ ethnic pride would have taken a severe battering by such stories of their No 1 Hero being a Chinese and that Chinese kungfu was superior to silat. That's like Jews being pissed off with Sigmund Freud for telling them their greatest Prophet Moses was an Egyptian.

What next? That the famed Malay ethnic warrior Ridhuan Tee Abdullah is also Chinese? Wakakaka.

In the end, what does it matter, whether Tuah is a mere myth or actually a historical personality. Nations need heroes as centres of gravity for their esteem and national pride, and examples to emulate, so long as they aren’t horses wakakaka or a murderous, adulterous and utterly evil man like King David of Israel or equally murderous Adolf Hitler.

29 comments:

  1. What next? That the famed Malay ethnic warrior Ridhuan Tee Abdullah is also Chinese? Wakakaka.

    ROFL :D gooood one

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  2. So easy to settle the issue.mirth or legend with DNA testings...but out pious UMNO b Muslims will not allow digging graves up.
    I wonder what kind of Muslims Egyptians are..keep digging graves and testing DNAs.
    UMNO b is afraid to face the truth that Hang Tuah maybe a Chinese bodyguard to the Chinese princess...Han Toh Ah.

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  3. Almost all Malays have Siamese or Chinese blood...and all are traced back to come from Africa....closet to Indian bloodline.
    It all depends...tracing back 60,000 years or 600 years.
    Rosmah is not worth talking about.
    She has a string of titles...as long as Najib.
    She is Najib's mother's choice..for Najib has no balls to decide on his own..in EVERYTHING...and that's not accusing.
    That's a fact...KTemoc.

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  4. It does matter that "Hang Tuah" stays as a Malay .
    If not...more proof given that the history books prepared by UMNO has the intention to create a worrier Malay hero...out of fictions.
    Han Toh Ah was a eunuch....how to have children or descendants?
    Hang Jebat..was Han Chee Bat...another eunuch.
    UMNO b seems to love to complicate things. Dig the bones..test the DNA..end of story..but dare not.
    The more stupid reasons they give..the more they are proving to be liars and keep fooling Malays.
    Concerning the word "Actor"...and
    "Actress"...the yanks love to make a fool of themselves....for decades.
    The whole world knows what "football" is...but they have to come out with a new gave...a copycat of Rugby ...using hands and feet and call that "Football" in USA...and not more than 8 countries competing in soft ball competition....and they call it..."World Series" with no shame at all.
    Now David Beckham is there to show what Football really is....I wonder what they call that....footsi...played by small tootsies fellas?

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  5. I have a strange feeling...KTemoc did scare away some commentators with his so call advise to me in his previous post.
    I hope I am wrong.
    Buttercup should be happy....but he is also scared to comment.

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  6. KT,Rosmah a legend.Wow,I never knew.Now I must add her name to my top female idol list.

    Got to go.Will join Monsterball and you guys later.

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  7. Just a light touch
    Hang Tuah is for man to aspire too.
    Rosmah for women to inspire to be.
    Fine by me, if wifey wants to be Rosmah as long as she does not nag me to buy her a Birkin handbag.
    If I can afford it like Najib, I will get her one.
    KT, I missed your blog. But I see Monsterball is still splashing his saliva here. One day he's gonna drown in his own saliva.
    Ball, be like me who is swimming in money
    And he has the audacity for accusing me of having many names. Thanks for ticking him off that he can be sued for it.
    I am not too smart to be wearing many hats. At school I am always wearing the dunce hat.

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  8. Sorry typo. to not too

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  9. KT, have to agree with you that nations need heroes for their esteem and national pride.......after all, did not Ibsen asked "who makes up the majority in any country - the intelligent or the stupid ?" These people really need someone up there (whether real or imaginary) to emulate or else their lives will have no meaning.

    Yeah, we should have heroes, as long as they are not "a murderous, adulterous and utterly evil man like King David of Israel or equally murderous Adolf Hitler".

    Methinks we don't really need to go that far back to find evil men. There are plenty here, in this country, today.......those old enough and yet unwise or lacking statemanship who deliberately, connivingly and cynically pit one race against the other, all the while fully aware of the disastrous consequences if their evil machinations took effect. If these scumbs are not the personificantion of evil, then we really don't know what evil is.

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  10. "Ball be like me who is swimming in money"
    He must have won some bets.
    A man who said he has to work for his bread and butter...asking a man with a money tree to be like him?
    "Rosmah for women to inspire to be" ..said Buttercup.
    And Puah Azizah said God forbids her to be like Rosmah.
    No wonder Buttercup ALWAYS wear the dunce hat at school.
    Do you want to listen to a self confess idiot?
    Have anyone ever been drowned by his own saliva?
    This looks like comment from a drunkard.

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  11. Hang Tuah was Han Toh Ah...a eunuch guarding the Chinese Princess in Malacca.
    All teachers in Malacca know that..but no choice..got to keep quiet.
    Expecting an idiot like Buttercup to learn and be smart is asking too much.
    He has to always depend on his cup..over flowing with joy juice.

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  12. Monsterball

    My wifey said God forbid her to be like Wan Azizah. She does not want to be a long-suffering wife who thinks wayward hubby as gift from Allah.
    She said she wont defend me if I lost my Rolex Gold watch after having fun with China Doll.

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  13. No wonder you are the most stupid student in school.
    I guess you need to marry a stupid girl to be doubly stupid and live happily ever after.
    You wear imitation Rolex watch bought from Petaling Street...want to have fun with expensive Chinese hooker...and your wife allow you to do that?
    What kind of a wife you have...a fat dwarf?
    People steal steal...bluff bluff wife to enjoy with other women...and you feel so proud your dwarf wife allows you to have fun with other women?
    You feel no shame telling this to the whole world?
    You sell your Buttercup's cup...and you have a dwarfy wife.
    What a miserable lonely creature you are.

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  14. When I go to Haadyai...it's all UMNO b guys looking for hookers.....some ...some like gays...but I look for good massages and food.
    Been there more than 60 times...like my second home...and all my Haadyai rowdy friends tell me...UMNO b monkies are the most crazy for sex hypocrites there.

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  15. hi Buttercup..you keep trying to how how smart and witty you are..but actually keep putting out comments to show what a first class shit idiot you are.
    hhhmmm...."ticking him off"
    'burning rubber".."high 5"
    Why man!!...you speak like a man of all seasons...where every season...is drinking imitation whiskey...next day.. compounded brandy....next..gin and next day..fermented coconut water.
    5th day...money all gone..sky juice.
    Cup ready for action and start all over again.

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  16. You got Balls of Fire to produce children or not?
    Talk wifey stuffs to me.....Buttercup asking for trouble.

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  17. "Little India" created by Najib is a reward to Saiful and Buttercup..and all...like them....drink ...merry and make woopies.
    Najib have created a prostitute den..where all kind of holes are available.
    It's for the Govt.wage earners like Buttercup to patronize.
    We rich buggers pick and choose the best all over the world.
    Aeroplanes burn rubber for us.

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  18. Mansterball,it is good when I am away you are keeping the umno b boys under control.I have to admit that you are a good teacher and disciplinary master.

    Soon Buttercup and all the anons will be tamed and be converts and bashing umno b on our behalf.We will just sit down,relax,listen and enjoy them bashing umno b.

    Then KT will get his wish.No more sitting on faces and ass licking stuffs on his blog.All well mannered,decent and polite comments only.Hahaha.

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  19. typo error,Mansterball should be Monsterball,sorry buddy

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  20. "Hang Tuah may be a myth but Rosmah Mansor is certainly a legend!

    - Docs, a Malaysiakini reader"

    this QUOTE is certainly CLASSIC!

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  21. Hope that will come true...Bruno.
    If all of them can be converted to bash UMNO b...I promise I will stop bashing and be the good old teacher...with no fouls words.
    Meanwhile I have no choice....It's TRAITORS against PATRIOTS...so said Najib..and I am a Street Fighter PATRIOT....fearing no Big Dog..Hasan Ali or the likes of them.
    Vast majority first time voters...mostly University students are defending the people and country..so young ...fearless.
    Why should an old man like me fear being arrested this and that.
    Is it because I am rich?
    Is it because at my age...if I am trully selfish...who do I care win or loose. I depend on no government help.
    No..it is because I am compelled to do my part to free Malaysians from this most corrupted and evil government...keep fooling his own race.
    You can say...to help and free the lost Malays souls supporting the Government is my priority.
    They are Malaysians first...race second and should be proud of that.
    Once they fully understand Malaysia belongs to all Malaysians and any political party elected is to serve the people and not elected to keep promoting their political party and their agendas...and get that deep into their head....think hard and believe..then Mahathir..Najib and all those thieves can never fool Malays anymore.
    13th GE is the litmus test for how much Malaysians have understand and waked up...ignoring race and religion dirty politics.
    Yes...KTemoc have my promise...no more bashing and foul words from Monsterball...AFTER 13th GE.
    Better still...right now...if Buttercup and all the Anons are converted and start bashing UMNO b now.

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  22. Mr Ball

    Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
    You are what Malays said dahlah bodoh, baghal pulak.
    Dumber, dumber. dumbest. (Recite that 100 times).
    You twist people's words like you twist your chingky blue-striped Apek boxer shorts.

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  23. When Buttercup is sober...he is even worst.
    He wants to teach me...Monsterball how to be smarter....hahahahahahahahaha
    The one who is best in twisting words are his two masters...Mahathir and Najib....and all the rouge ministers follow their leaders.
    When all these idiots are cornered...they will accuse and accuse...others...for what they are.
    Buttercup should NEVER try to teach others when he chooses to be a balls carrier...a man with no dignity ..no shame...like his heroes...like a bunch of pariahs stealing and stealing with no shame.
    I do not twist...I fuck all UMNO b politicians...ministers and their members with no fear.
    Do anyone fear thieves and murderers?
    I guess Buttercup do.
    How many children do you have?

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  24. I can believe it!!
    Mahathir twist like hell...Najib wellknown flip flopper...yet Buttercup never complaint once...about these two.
    Even the lowest scumbag will lie low and be humble....but not Buttercup.
    This pariah drunkard talk in the morning ...totally different from the nights.

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  25. Burning burning hot....with rubber in his ass....hands dare not high 5 for more customers....for his cup runneth over...too full..and now...ticks tickling him ...here there everywhere...he has hide all...dressed smart with a Rolex from Petaling Street...and even said...his wife allows him to go hunting for joy sticks.
    Naturally you can expect Buttercup to say I am twisting...and we start all over again...who are the real twisters in Malaysia.
    So his heroes can twist...others cannot?
    hi..I don't steal....your bosses steal like hell.
    Why do you support thieves...give me one good reason.

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  26. Lookee here. Hang Tuah maybe a myth. Our queen is real "First lady" ust as our King is our sovereign.

    But our dear Rosmah is still the First Lady of the piple (FLOP).Kindy show due respect and refer to her as the FLOP. I feel she has real talent as the FLOP.

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  27. She is certainly the FLOL too..First Lady Of Lying.

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  28. Menurut Andaya (2002), Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat dan Hang Kasturi adalah pemimpin ulung kaum Orang Asli. Kekuasaan Orang Asli dalam pemerintahan Melaka serta kerajaan-kerajaan melayu yang lain mengalami kemerosotan dengan kematian ketiga-tiga tokoh ini. Pendapat ini dipetik dari Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, Macmillan, London 1906 karangan Skeat, W.William and C.O. Blagden.

    Andaya juga memetik pendapat Juli Edo, seorang ahli antropologi dari etnik Semai yang mengatakan bahawa Hang Tuah dan Hang Jebat adalah Orang Asli. Hang Tuah ialah Orang Jakun (Winstedt, 1935). Hang Tuah dan keluarganya berpindah ke Hulu Perak selepas kematian Hang Jebat.

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