Taiping to Kuala Kangsar... A dangerous look at Malaysian history?

And so from Gunung Semanggol, I took the bus to Taiping...

Soon enough I arrived at Kamunting just a few kilometres from Taiping... Here is a very famous (or rather infamous) place... For some people, the name Kamunting draws almost instant horror! For it is a place known to be some sort of jail for those detained under the ISA, the Internal Security Act where practically anyone who is considered a possible menace to the social order (or rather accused as such by the powers-that be) can be locked up and have the keys thrown out just like that.

Under the act, one could be detained without trial for any amount of period they see fit. Being detained and being denied legal rights under some sort of house arrest is another thing... The worse is the horror said to happen behind the locked doors, the kind that escapes any official acts or public knowledge... That is, we're talking about the things they do to extract information (some say even false confessions) out of those unlucky enough to be Kamunting inmates...

Soon enough, I arrived at the Taiping bus station...

Notice this building right in front of the station? The name tadika means it's a kindergarten while Che Pheng Kor sounds like the name of a prominent Chinese. This reminds me of the same name I saw on a well-positioned building on the island of Pangkor.... A building that immediately caught the eye as one is about to arrive at the island from Lumut.

Perhaps the name Pangkor came from the name Pheng Kor? After all the island used to be called pulau (island of) Dinding. One thing's for sure... The name Pangkor came after the Pangkor Treaty of 1874. I've read the original treaty which was signed on a ship off the island and I remember the island was called Pulau Dinding in the treaty but yet the treaty itself is known as the Pangkor Treaty... Think...

Perhaps Pheng Kor is a prominent Chinese who helped the British achieved their aim of forcing the Malays to submit rule to them through the Pangkor Treaty? After all, whether by design or not, official history does show Chinese gangsters were instrumental in creating the disturbances in Perak which paved the way for the treaty. The treaty on the other hand gave the British the political room to manouver inside and get involved in Malay affairs and rule. This eventually led to the colonisation of the Malay states in the Peninsular...

As I've said in the previous article, my actual destination for the day was Kuala Kangsar. Oh, the date was 21st July 2007. While waiting for the bus to the royal town of Perak, I managed to set up the promotional poster for the "Berpetualang ke Aceh" book series...

I stopped by at the food and drink stalls beside the bus station. Somehow, whenever in Taiping, I would stop by and at least have a drink at this particular spot with a burger stall called Love! Make love not war I guess...

Which reminds me, Taiping was the first so-called modern town in the federation of Malay states which is now known as Malaysia... Modern by British definition British that is, a slanted definition which consciously tries to marginalise the original Malay population while bringing up outsiders they brought in to dominate the scene.

Little that people realise, when Taiping was created in the 1880s, Malay towns which have existed for centuries were destroyed or burned down by the colonialists. This is to eradicate any significant memory of Malay history and concrete evidence of its former greatness while at the same time, new townships using British town-planning models were raised and promoted only to be steered by the Chinese while the Malays were left to rot in the rurals...

This resulted in most Malays now not knowing their actual roots much less the actual greatness of Malay history! Think... The Malacca Sultanate was a great Malay empire with the 15th Century city of Malacca touted as the Venice of the East while 17th Century Aceh Sultanate, also a symbol of Malay greatness was recognised as one out of 5 greatest Islamic powers in the world!...

While some might have learned about it in history, many doubt its actual relevance to the current state of affairs. This is sad as they could have learned, the fall of the great empires was not because the Malays were stupid or uncivilised as the Western-biased history taught them but because of internal strife which were taken advantage of by the colonialists... At least they could have realised that the Malays were already very adapt at doing business and dealing with the outside world on a cosmopolitan egalitarian world-class scale!

Now, many Malays got the wrong idea that in order to move forward and walk shoulder to shoulder with other races, they must shed away their Malayness and adapt the values of others. They are taught they must be robust to cut a piece of the action even if they have to resort to lying, cheating and bribery because that is the order of the day!

The history of the Malays have been systematically reduced to insignificance through a major social engineering effort by the British such that most present Malays believe business (as in market dealings and such) were brought in here by the Chinese... Allegedly, the Malays never knew how to conduct business until the Chinese taught them so! How did that happen? Let me try to be as brief as possible...

The Pangkor Treaty of 1874 which saw the installment of the first British resident to a Malay state, J.W.W. Birch angered the Malay nobles for stepping on local values and being rude to the extent of practically cursing the Sultan, the ruler of the Malays in front of public. Protocol faux pass aside, the British through the treaty have also made some major changes in local commerce, how it was done, who was involved and which party should get the spoils and shares. In time, the dissatisfaction and anger among the Malays grew unbearable and this lead to the murder of Birch in Pasir Salak 1875.

This in turn caused the British to conduct a massive manhunt for those involved. Inevitably a war ensued between the locals and the colonialists, a war which saw some Malays siding the British because of the lucrative promise of rewards made... Plus the fact that those who refused to cooperate with the colonialists were labled as rebels and thus risk themselves and their families being harassed (if not tortured and killed) all their lives!

The result, some Malay nobles were hanged to death while the ruler and his advisors were exiled. That was when Perak was left without real leadership... Whatever royalties and noblemen left to run the country were practically made puppets if not gagged or turned into official rubber stamps... And thus the British could do whatever they want unhindered including destroying Malay towns and turning it into estates or jungles while building up new ones which consciously marginalised the Malays and created strongholds for outsiders.

The result is as you can see now, what is called the reality of the situation... The Malays despite being the original landlords has less than 30 per cent, perhaps only 10 per cent of the economic cake... Worse of all, most of them have no idea there was such a thing as a Malay town ever! After all they entered the world with ALL TOWNS in Malaysia already conquered by the Chinese! Little did they realise Malay towns and cities have existed for centuries. Its just the legacies left by such empires as Malacca and Aceh have already been wiped out by the Westerners when they came in full force at the end of 19th Century AD!

Ah... Enough of this...

Anyway I left Taiping feeling quite angry after knowing the unofficial version of its history, the one that some people tried to hide under the guise of maintaining social order and such. The word Taiping is said to be Chinese for "peace everlasting"... Perhaps so but peace for who really? What I do know, Taiping is the first Chinese town created in Malaysia and it was to be the model for all towns in this region under British stewardship...

And I do know that the first community leaders for Taiping were selected among whom? Guess whom... Of all people, the leader of the gangsters which were instrumental in creating the troubles in Perak leading to the signing of the Pangkor Treaty of 1874! Now, why is that? Think deeply... Connect all the dots and you'll find the word conspiracy close at bay...

On the way, I passed Bukit (hill of) Gantang. Just like Gunung Semanggol, here is a place with a name that carries a certain reverberation inside me...

I arrived in Kuala Kangsar quite late... After searching and walking around for a while, then only I found a cheap affordable hotel on the outskirts...

And so I rested for the day. Above is a picture of the books I brought from the "Berpetualang ke Aceh" series which got wet in Gunung Semanggol because of the rain. I dried it up using a fan. Now that I've done this story, it is time to do one at SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) . See you there...