Friday, October 10, 2008

Malaysian history

A small piece of History for our future generations
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Do Malaysians really know their country's history? Or has it subverted to suit the idealogical needs of a certain community? This came to me via email and I'm reproducing it in verbatim here.

For too long our government has systematically been wiping out any references to a famous Melaka prince as being Hindu and belonging to the powerful Sri Vijaya Hindu empire. Instead our chidren are being taught that Parameswara was a Malay prince. 

What race ruled or did not rule is besides the point.What is important is not butchering history to create your own truths. You cannot change your race even if you convert - Parameswara could have been responsible for Umno's stupid and false sense of heritage through 'Ketuanan Melayu'. If this is what it is based on, there is no 'Ketuanan Melayu' because thelineage of Melaka Sultans are Indians, not Malays. It is no secret that Parameswara was an Indian and a Hindu prince. It is clear from records that Parameswara never converted to Islam. He was an Indian Hindu who fled Palembang in Sumatra to eventually found Melaka circa 1400 AD and start the entire Malaysian royalty. Malaysia 's royalty was and is of Hindu/India origin. On the other hand it was Sri Maharaja who converted himself and the court of Melaka to Islam, and as a result took on the name of Sultan Muhammad Shah sometime after 1435. 

The most famous of Indian Hindu Kings were Rajaraja Chola and his son Rajendra Chola who invaded Southern Thailand, Kedah, Perak, Johor and Sumatra about 1000 AD. This is Raja-raja  Chola - the Indian/Hindu kings and not Raja Chulan - a Malay king. 

But what is really sad is that our children are taught as though Malaysian history suddenly began in 1400 with an Islamic Melaka. Even the Malays themselves are being cheated by UMNO into believing that everything started around 1400. We are also led to believe that the Indians and Chinese first arrived on the shores of Malaysia only in around 1850 as desperate indentured labourers, farmers and miners. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

The cultural influences of India in particular, and China, in South East Asia span over 2,000 years, starting perhaps with the arrival from India of theBrahmanical prince/scholar - Aji Saka in Java in AD78, through to Vietnam, Cambodia (Indo China), Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, Bali, Borneo, Brunei and beyond. Malay culture is Indian culture. In fact the whole of South East Asian culture is Indian culture.

The findings at Bujang Valley speak of an ancient Indian/Hindu presence in Kedah. There were Chinese settlements in Pahang and Kelantan around the 13th -14th century and in 12th century in Singapore . The early Brunei Sultanate had a Chinese Queen. One need not ponder at length the implications of Angkor Wat and Borobudur or that 60% -70% of Bahasa Malaysia comprises Sanskrit/Tamil words. But ALL of these are hidden away from the rakyat inc the Malays themselves so the Malays in particular grow up with limited knowledge of their own country and heritage 
  
To illustrate, some of these words are:

bumi  = boomi

putra  = putran

raja  = rajah

desa  =  thesam

syakti = sakthi

kolam = kulam

bahaya = abahya

jaya  = jeya

maha  = maha

aneka = aneha

nadi = naadi

kedai  = kadai

mahligai  = maaligai

mantra  = manthrum 
  
menteri = manteri 


(This list can go on and it is true because Tamil and Sanskrit are about 5, 000 years old)

An extremely important archeological find that pointed to one of the greatest empires in history - the Raja Cholan empire that ruled from the Maldives through India , Sri Lanka and right down to South East Asia found deep in the jungles of Johor a few years ago and made headlines in the mainstream newspapers in 2005, suddenly disappeared from the news….. 
The time has arrived for us to record our history as the facts tell us and not as we would like to wish it for. The truth will never hurt anyone. Lies, always will.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

The D Day

I've been told that our Prime Minister could formally announce that he will not be contesting (as in defending his Umno presidency) either by 7th or 8th Oct. Read here for the background.

Umno leaders are hoping that after the last Umno supreme council extraordinary meeting at which Abdullah Badawi was bluntly told to make way to Najib, he would proceed with the announcement of staying out of the party polls and not do one of his infamous flip-flops.

Said a Sabah Umno leader in a text message last week: "There is a compromise between Pak Lah and Najib. Likely scenario, Pak Lah will not defend Umno post and Najib will agree to defer general assembly for him to assume the presidency uncontested and PM post. 


 

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Shooting blanks?

What is Anwar Ibrahim's game plan? I bounced this question to a friend who has this knack of seeing the bigger picture. Maybe it's because he used to be in a tresearch outfit. And he's also in Umno.
This is his SMS response, in verbatim.

"Anwar is playing a 'canon ball' of political billiard. His main target is MPs in kl but using sabah MPs as bait. He is indirectly telling d kl MPs that if they don't jump now d sabahans will beat them to d avaialble posts in a PR government. 'When they do jump for sure d sabahans wld follow suit as a politically correct decision. It's like killing many birds wth one blank shot!"

So is it a smoking gun I see?

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Are they really jumping?

Ah, Sabah politicians. They have gained the reputation of being very fluid with their political affiliations. We have seen in the 1970's, the 1980's and the infamous incident in 1994 when a certain PBS leader uttered the phrase "tukar baju" before switching parties.
Now that they are being more assertive, the immediate worry is whether they will be again doing the now renowned Sabah jump.
I checked with some Sabah Barisan leaders and the feedback is that there is no move out of the coalition. The possibility is that disgruntled leaders will team up in one local Sabah Barisan party so that they can speak as one voice and negotiate their demands as a full fledged partner in Barisan.

That should make the boys on a certain fourth floor jump.

Monday, May 5, 2008

A starting point

Welcome to some of my thoughts. This blog has been playing in my mind for some time.

I have another blog which I have just re-activated after an eight month hiatus.

Postcards will be picture blog. Meaning each posting will feature a photo with an accompanying caption story. It will be, as intended, about the people and sights of my state. As I see it.

A Borneo voice will - as the tagline goes - contain my rants and raves of issues - and the occasional khabar angin I hear in my job as a news hack.