Notes from Europe: Italy & the UK - April 2008

Salam semua,

I've just got back from Italy, attending an international event in Milan and tour guiding a group while doing some research around the Venice, Padova and Como area (incidentally where 'Casino Royale' was filmed). Flew north for a weekend in London before returning to Milan, then back to KL via Dubai.

For me, Italy is like 'balik kampung' as I spent time studying there and still speak fluent Italian. So much so that Italian Immigration personnel thought I was working there! But my Italian is put to good use because I promote Malaysia in my tour guiding for Italians and other Europeans.

This is in fact the first time I set foot in Italy after 21 years! It's a fascinating homecoming of sorts. Italy, like many parts of Europe, is both a land of storied past and dynamic present. And I'm glad I'm from an equally dynamic country with much to be proud of – no inferiority complex here.

I had kept in touch with a good ole Italian friend from Milan itself, Moreno. And he was so kind as to offer me and my fellow two Malaysian architects Surea & Chan to stay in his cozy apartment in the Corvetto suburb south of the city.

Our first day was at the sprawling Fiera Milano Rho for the Salone Internazionale di Mobili, an international design fair focusing on furniture – the best from the past and the latest for the future. Indeed, some of the most appealing and even exotic furniture can be seen here. People who are interested in design should be here as there's much to appreciate, especially if you bring me along as your Italian-speaking guide :-) , like I was for the Malaysian group I went with. We'd love to come back for next year's Fair.

We even met some Indonesians checking out the latest design offerings. It's nice to meet Indonesians; I always feel a kinship with fellow people of the Nusantara, sharing our related language and cultures.

In fact, I was in Italy also to do some research on the Nusantara for my upcoming book. Italians are very interested in history & heritage. Not surprisingly because they have a long history from the ancient Romans to medieval Islamic influence to the many European wars and interventions right through World War II.

Yet they're not interested in just their own history. Recently, Italian researchers studying ancient world historic links have found that there must have been connections between the Malay World and as far north of the Indian subcontinent as the Indus Valley - remember the ancient cities at Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, in today's Pakisan.

As an example, Italian tests on archaeological remains found in the Indus Valley indicate the presence of banana species that are originally grown only in the Malay Archipelago! This is 4000 years ago! It corroborates my own research that the Malay peoples of South-east Asia have long been seafaring traders since pre-Biblical times. Indeed, old texts from India confirm that ships of the "Malayo" have been sailing around the Indian Ocean just like the various Indian states have also been trading with the Nusantara. This Italian finding was also reported via BBC History in March.

When I arrived in London, the UK was going through a petrol supply strike crisis. On Sunday my brother-in-law Ben and I drove from one south London petrol station to another looking for a pump which was not filled with anxious buyers. By the time I left UK that Wednesday, car fuel prices had risen to £1.2 (RM7) per litre. As high as Italy's, yet isn't Britain (via North Sea oil) one of Europe's biggest oil producers?

Food costs were rising fast across Europe too, not just in both Italy andUK, but in France for example, bread prices have been raised three times in the last 6 months. The BBC reports food supply and price rise tensions in places from the Philippines to Egypt to supermarket shelves emptying of rice in even some Wal-Marts in the USA!

We are much better off in Malaysia, with petrol and staples better controlled by the Government (except rice in ironically Kedah the rice-planting heartland, I hear). And when I got home, I was proud to see that my family was doing its bit to help with food production. In my two-week absence my wife and kids had planted more kinds of fruits and veggies in our little garden, as I had suggested.

We can always do something, anything, for a better world, insyAllah.
-nadge- www.nadge.org (test-site; migrated to new host)

Tulisan Jawi, Bahasa Melayu/B.Malaysia, sikap orang Melayu dan 'salah Kerajaan'.
[Penulisan ini merujuk-balas e-mail di bawahnya]

Salam.

Padaku, kau selalu asyik negatif lah Yoq. Kerajaan saja tak boleh nak dipersalahkan untuk segalanya. Lihat kesalahan pada kita sendiri.

1. Kerajaan takda pun haramkan tulisan Jawi. Malahan aku ingat lagi masa kita di sek. rendah dulu ada siri belajar tulisan Jawi setiap hari di RTM. Aku ikut dan la ni fasih baca & tulis Jawi. Tapi lama-lama lenyap sebab didapati tak ramai orang Melayu lain minat. Begitu juga Utusan Melayu (keluaran Jawi) dulu. Bini aku hairan aku selalu beli dan suruh anak-anak baca. Tapinya tak cukup ramai org Melayu beli sampaikan ia terpaksa bungkus.

Orang Melayu sendirilah yang tak daulatkan Jawi, bukan salah Kerajaan aja. Sekarang akhabr Jawi sekali seminggu aja, itupun org Melayu tak ambil pudul. Tau, di Indonesia akhbar Jawi satu pun dah takda, langsung pupus. Kau mau kritik Pemerintah Indonesia karenanya?

2. Bahasa Melayu tetap rasmi, tapi salahnya orang Melayu sendiri yang tak agungkannya. Banyak Melayu 'intelektual' dan berpendidikan ala-Barat guna B. Inggeris dlm bualan harian dan tulisan e-mel. Lihat aja e-mel2 group kita... Jadi, nak salahkan siapa? Aku contohnya tetap sebut "Bahasa Melayu" bila merujuk bahasa ni.

Mungkin orang tak tau, tapi aku sering cakap Melayu dgn Bukan-Melayu. Mereka akhirnya ikut sama jawab dlm Bahasa Melayu. Sedangkan aku bukan orang Melayu, dan jelas aku mengakui pada sesiapa yang tanya - aku bukan Melayu lagi. Aku bangsa sendiri. Tapi aku memilih untuk menyebelahi orang Melayu krn saudara se-Islam, dan ada kebaloian dalam ciri-ciri tamadun Melayu yang aku fikir layak dipertahankan, bukan kerana Bangsa.

Kita yang kena tolong naikkan antara kita sendiri. Itu sebab contohnya bila aku dulu ternampak makalah tentang kau dalam majalah, aku hebahkan pada yahoogroup kita, dan aku sanjung kemunculan kau dalam majalah tu serta pencapaian kau. Itu satu contoh kecil dari banyak lagi yang aku sokong orang kita. Dalam diriku tiada hasad dengki, kerana aku bukan Melayu lagi.

Pokoknya, kita kena hebatkan dan daulatkan jatidiri kita. Secara sendirinya, orang akan hormat dan ikut siapa yang kuat. Hakikatnya itu yang berlaku dengan Orang Putih. Mau tak mau, kita terpaksa 'ikut' depa sebab depa kuat. Kita ambil iktibar...

Tak yah salahkan pihak lain atau Kerajaan aja.

Make our own destiny! Tentukan sendiri hala tujuan - jangan harapkan Kerajaan.
-nadge-

----- Original Message -----
From: mohd yahya ysp3737my@yahoo.com Date: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 11:23 am
Subject: [mc7983] SEMBANG MERDEKA 2 - Cikgu Saad Tg.Karang
To: dpims , dpimpusat , mc mcoba , kiolek mc , yspgroup , PIBGSEMASHUR SEMASHUR , pibg skue , sahri sahri mailto:sahri@yahoogroups.com

Assalamualaikum wbkt,

Ahad baru ni 26 ogos 2007 saya sempat balik kampung di Tg Karang. Lepas solat Isya berbual dengan Cikgu Saad, dia dah pencen lama. Sembang pasal famili adik beradik dan macam-macam. Saya tertarik untuk kongsi cerita pasal pengalaman dia sebagai Cikgu dan sekolah.

1. Cikgu Saad cakap dulu zaman British orang Melayu boleh belajar tulisan Jawi dengan baik malah orang British, Orang Cina & India pun turut belajar dan pandai tulisan Jawi. British tak mansuhkan pun tulisan Jawi tapi bila kita sendiri perintah kita mansuhkan tulisan Jawi. Kita undur kebelakang.

2.Dengan penuh teliti saya mendengar luahan dia yang dengan penuh semangat keMelayuan walupun dia jawa. Dulu kita ada bahasa Melayu sekarang kita sendiri dah tak ada bahasa, yang ada bahasa Malaysia. Mana ada bahasa Malaysia, orang putih tu kat Amerika, Australia, England pun dia guna bahasa Inggeris manaada bahasa Amerika, manada bahasa Australia... kita ni dah jauh terpesong daripada perjuangan..kita kebelakang kata cikgu saad.

3. Banyak lagi luahanya, pasal bangunan sekolah, pasal biaya sekolah, pasal cikgu, pasal kurikulum dan pasal Menteri. Bualan bersama beberapa rakan arwah bapak saya hingga larut malam sekitar jam 11.45 malam sejak daripada lepas solat isyak. Kami beransur dengan bersalam antara satu sama lain.

4. Banyak erti dan pengalaman saya peroleh daripada orang lama.

Yahya Sahri
- MCOBA 2290 (batch 7983)
- SU Kehormat DPIM Selangor
- AJK PIBG SEMASHUR
- MD YSP>
- 012-2839957

Lost City Believed Found in Malay Peninsula; Tie-in with Ancient Tsunami History

To: MCOBA-MALAYSIA
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2005 6:36 AM
Subject: Tie-in with tsunamic history RE: Lost City Believed Found in Malay Peninsula

Terima kasih for mentioning me, Sdr Rosli. [Rosli's message underneath]

It's okay, Raimy is also a friend of mine whom I knew thru my Heritage Asia mag, and he had given me a personal briefing on this exciting find.

Raimy is a wonderful guy, very proactive and I'm proud to know him and to know that there is a Malay like him, even though I myself am not ethnically Malay :-) (In fact, Raimy is also mixed blood...)

I was also interviewed by The Star, and I gave my opinion as outlined below:

There are of course skeptics who say among other arguments against this find, that "How and why should any ancient city in the Malay Peninsula be found far inland? They should be along the coasts like all other traditional settlements including Melaka."

I think I can help give a better historic background on this.

The Malay Archipelago has always been geologically active - the recent end-2004 tsunami being a painful case in point. We know that in 1883, Krakatau in the Sunda strait exploded and sent worse tsunamis then.

But what's less known is that in the 6th century AD an even more powerful volcanic explosion in the same Sunda strait was so terrible that it is believed to be the mother of all disasters, which sank and severed the land connection between Java and Sumatra, creating separate islands.

At that time there were several maritime cultures around Southeast Asia, the nearest being the Pasemah culture in southern Sumatra and Tarumanagara in western Java. The resulting volcanic quakes and tsunamis pretty much wiped out many of these cultures. In their place, new kingdoms such as Srivijaya emerged and encompassed the Malay Peninsular by the 7th-8th centuries and others beyond. [There are also old Chinese records regarding these events.]

The memory of catastrophic destruction by those 6th century tsunamis and worse the sinking of land into the sea was so great that for many centuries the trauma persisted and, with port exceptions, people felt safer to build major cities much further inland. Thus it was so with 8th century Borobudur and Prambanan in central Java and later, Angkor Wat, all of which are in hinterland jungle areas.

In contrast, the great Melaka port was founded later in the 14th century when the memory of the seaborne disasters were dimmed.

Thus it would be no surprise to find a city like Kota Gelanggi which long predates Melaka being built far inland, safer from the tsunamic ravages of the sea.

Another factor for Kota Gelanggi’s inland site is that it would be on the legendary Jalan Penarik where travelers and their perahu would go up the Muar River to Kota Gelanggi and then pull their boats a short distance to reach the Pahang River and reach the other side of the Malay Peninsula.

There is even a legend that Sungai Pahang once emptied into the Straits of Malacca, not as it currently does into the Bunguran Sea (now known as South China Sea).

All the above would explain why an important inland city like Kota Gelanggi could exist in the Muar River's hinterlands of Johor.
-nadge-

At 03:50 AM 2/5/05 +0800, Rosli Mohd. Ali wrote:
Faisal,
I had met this Raimy Che-Ross, a Johor born. In fact he came to present us this paper, after doing so with the Museum and Antiquities Department, seeking opinion and support, assistance, even funding for expanding the matter pursued.

Too bad our friend, A. Najib Ariffin (Nadge), could not attend the presentation when it was held together with the Past Presidents of Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) and the current Heritage Sub-Committee Members, last year in2004.

Raimy has been doing Ph.D at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia, where the current Department of Museum and Antiquities director-general Datuk Adi Taha did his. Raimy's research is wholly based on old manuscripts that he had collected and/or read.

All I can disclose for now is that the location he pinpointed is aligned towards two main waterways connecting east and west of the Malay Peninsula, that was believed to be the inland routel - and is currently also, a place of high surveillance for some other reasons that he could not disclose, until such finding is certain.

Real or not, only time will tell.
Rosli Ali
Class of 69
(The class that St Bul rejects.)

----Original Message Follows----
From: faizal.aziz
To: mckk-comnet@yahoogroups.com ; mcoba7680@yahoogroups.com ; MCOB_UK-Eire@yahoogroups.com ; sejarah-melayu@yahoogroups.com ; Hulaimi
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 11:43 PM
Subject: [MCOB_UK-Eire] Lost City Believed Found in Malay Peninsula

Guys
Is this for real?
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-02/03/article04.shtml
Lost City Believed Found in Malay Peninsula

CAIRO, February 3 (IslamOnline.net) - A 1,000-year-old lost city, possibly older than Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Borobudur in Indonesia, is believed to have been located in the dense jungles of Johor, Malaysia, a discovery that may set to transform the historical landscape of the Asian region, according to a leading daily Thursday, February 3.

The discovery of what is thought to be the site of Kota Gelanggi or Perbendaharaan Permata (Treasury of Jewels) by an independent Malaysian researcher has prompted museum officials to plan an expedition to confirm the finding, The Star online said.

If indeed the site is that of the lost city, it is set to transform the historical landscape of the region, the paper quoted as saying Raimy Che-Ross, who spent 12 years researching Malay manuscripts all over the world and conducting aerial searches of the area before locating the site.

The discovery of unusual formations from the air had led him to believe that the site could be the first capital of the Srivijaya Malay Empire dating back to 650AD, he said.

If the city is what we suspect it to be, then the 14th century Malacca Sultanate can no longer be considered as the start of modern Malaysian history.

Once verified, the honour will go to Johor, as one thousand years ago Malacca had not even been established, he told the paper.

Raimy had tried to enter the site in early 2003 but failed, managing to get only as far as to the formations which are believed to be trenches and embankments of the outer city, the paper said.

Expedition
Department of Museum and Antiquities Director-General Datuk Adi Taha said an archaeological expedition would be mounted this year to verify the location of the lost city, with Raimy’s assistance, said The Star. Funds for the expedition would be sought under the 9th Malaysia Plan.

Adi told the paper he and the Department were very enthusiastic about Raimy’s research findings and would work with him to verify the location of the lost city, which could be spread out over a few hundred square kilometres.

It was an old Malay manuscript once owned by Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, in a London library that led Raimy to the existence of the lost city in Johor, the paper revealed.

According to Raimy, the presence of a lost city in the jungles at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula had been indicated in Malayan folklore for over four centuries.

Manuscripts, Tales
His findings on the lost city have been published in the latest issue of the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 2004. In his paper, he said the place was raided by the Indian-Chola conqueror Raja Rajendra Cholavarman I, of the South Indian Chola Dynasty in 1025 AD.

The ruins could be as old as Borobodur, and definitely pre-date the later Angkor Wat, Raimy told the Star, adding that aerial photographs taken over the site and tales from the Orang Asli aboriginal jungle dwellers had indicated the existence of structures.

“From the air I could see formations which looked like a set of double-walls, protecting the inner city. I have verified all the information by reviewing and reassessing old colonial records and travellers tales.”

Information on Kota Gelanggi appears in the Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) a 16th century book which was edited and revised by Tun Seri Lanang, the Bendahara (equivalent to the Prime Minister of a sultanate) of the Royal Court of Johor in 1612 AD, the paper said.

The manuscript narrated an account of the devastating raids by Raja Rajendra Cholavarman I, who after destroying the city of Gangga Negara (now Beruas in lower Perak) turned his attention to Kota Gelanggi.

Raimy told the paper he did not expect to find in Kota Gelanggi structures similar to Angkor Wat, as the lost city in Johor was much older [and thus may be different from the Hindu and later Buddhist influence on Angkor Wat – Najib].

“We can expect to find simple granite and brick structures, walls, buildings and possibly undisturbed tombs. Based on the data I have collected and consultations with archaeologists over the years, it is believed that Kota Gelanggi in Johor, which some scholars believe to be what the Chinese called the kingdom of Lo-Yue [possibly short for ‘Melayu’], was also the first centre of trade for Srivijaya.”

It was possibly in Johor that the contemporary Malay civilisation was born. The Srivijaya site in nearby Palembang, Indonesia has artefacts which date back to roughly the same period.

There could be a wealth of information derived from this city. It is known that official Japanese records note that an Imperial Prince of Japan, Prince Takaoka (born 799AD), who became a monk renamed Shinnyo Hosshinno, met his death in Lo-Yue reportedly after being attacked by a tiger. Perhaps he was on his way here, en route to India.

This is understandable as Raimy said that while its main activity was a trading, Kota Gelanggi was also a centre of sacred learning. Hindu and Buddhist statues and figurines may exist but what he hopes to find are epigraphic inscriptions (writings on granite).

The Legend of Mu, and how the Malay people and Atlantis got their names

At 08:20 PM 3/22/01 , ak wrote: ...
"Melayu" is a word that existed long before the Europeans 'discovered' our wonderful little paradise... but its meaning in Javanese is not flattering either...

Nadge's feedback:
I'd suggest that it is neither flattering nor unflattering, but factual and there's an interesting web of info behind this meaning of "melayu". In fact, in the oral tradition of our ancestors I was told this long ago by my Javanese paternal relatives back in Yogyakarta (Jogjakarta, Indonesia), and I subscribe to this view.

Here's why - I will tell it to you as it was told to me – in Malay:

Dalam bahasa Jawa, malahan juga dalam banyak dialek lain di Nusantara (contohnya Bahasa Batak-Mendailing dll.) istilah "melayu" bermaksud "lari"! Umpamanya semasa kecil dulu, kita anak-anak yang hanya berbahasa Jawa lalu bermain kejar-kejar seringkali menjerit "melayu! melayu!" yang bermaksud "lari! lari!"!

Nah, gimana wujudnya nama bangsa "Melayu" yang membawa erti sama dengan maksud "lari"? Harus juga diingat bahawa hampir semua kumpulan etnis di kepulauan Asia Tenggara termasuk di Filipina juga mengaku diri mereka sebangsa "rumpun Melayu" walaupun dari segi komunitas lokal berbeda-beda ada Melayu Malaysia, Melayu Riau, Jakun, Minang, Bugis, Jawa, Dayak dll. - karena ada suatu lagenda yang dikongsi bersama tentang asal-usul mereka.

Menurut lagenda oral turun-temurun yang wujud di banyak tempat di Asia Tenggara & Pasifik dari Aceh hingga ke Hawaii, beribu tahun silam terdapat suatu benua kuno yang bernama “Mu”. Penduduknya mempunyai kehidupan bermasyarakat yang amat maju dan selesa dengan pelbagai ilmu hingga dikatakan boleh terbang!

Tapi lama-kelamaan setelah hidup dalam kemewahan, mereka menjadi leka, tidak bersyukur, jatuh akhlak moral dan bergaduh sesama sendiri, atau juga ada sebab yang lain... Tapi akhirnya, Tuhan (yang mereka panggil "Sang Kekal") amat murka dan melandakan gempa bumi dan letusan gunungan berapi yang maha dahsyat beserta hujan lebat toh malapetaka banjir besar-besaran terjadi. Segala-galanya tenggelam ke dalam laut.

Penduduknya ramai yang mati, hanya yang muda-muda yang kuat dan bisa lari ke tanah-tanah tinggi saja yang terselamat, atau menaiki perahu untuk lari ke tempat jauh. Semuanya terpisah bertempiaran ke berbagai haluan, lalu tersadai di puncak-puncak dataran tinggi yang membentuk kepulauan Nusantara di Asia Tenggara kini.

Semasa turun bala itu, anak-anak benua "Mu" itu menjerit "melayu! melayu" yang bermaksud "lari" dalam bahasa mereka. Dan olehkarena dahsyat dan sengsaranya kejadian itu terpaku di sanubari para anak Mu yang terselamat, maka mereka semua memanggil diri mereka rumpun "Orang Melayu", iaitu "Orang yang lari".

Kita yang tersadai di Asia Tenggara akhirnya dianugerah dengan Islam dan nama Tuhan Sang "Kekal" kini kita tahu sebagai Allah swt. Yang Maha Esa. Tentang saudara-saudara kuno kita yang lari melintas Lautan Teduh (nama Melayu untuk lautan yang aman, teduh atau passive yakni Pasifik / Pacific Ocean -Ed.), kita tidak tahu apa terjadi pada mereka, hingga kita katakan mereka hilang tenggelam ditelan dek "Lautan Telan" (= “atelan” = Atlantik).

Tapi hari ini kita tahu, mereka itu tiba di satu benua besar lain lalu terus hidup dan memakai nama tidak jauh dari kita iaitu Maya, dan Tuhan mereka masih kekal bernama "Kekalkan".

Saudara-saudara anak serumpun kita itu mempunyai lagenda yang sama seperti kita, iaitu bahawa mereka itu anak yang lari dari satu bencana benua lama, dan moyang mereka ditelan dan “telus” ke dalam laut. Dari lagenda lain, nama benua Mu yang hilang itu diingati dari "anak telan telus" sebagai "Atlantis"...

Check these facts: (1) Up to as late as 9,000 years ago much of today's Malay Archipelago was above water and basically was a land bridge to Australia. (2) This story ties in with the legend of the catastrophic "Great Flood(s)" mentioned in most religious texts and cultural traditions of the world. (3) The Mayans and many native Indians of the Americas today resemble Malays too, and a major god of the Mayans is Kuculcan (pronounced 'Kukul-kan')... still close sounding to Sang Kekal(kan) meaning “the Great One who is Permanent and Maintains Permanence” in Malay.

The Malay, the Maya and other related peoples are the Children of the Lost Continent of Mu, also known as Atlantis, which was located in the Southeast Asia Pacific region before the Flood.

This also explains why Southeast Asia's Malay civilization appears to be materially 'young' - no ancient cities, monuments, written texts etc. as it was all sunk and lost, while the young survivors who had to quickly “melayu” or run had to leave behind everything as they escaped to the new lands i.e. the once-were highlands of Mu that are now the islands of the Malay Archipelago.

But how come their Maya cousins of the Americas have great cities of stone pyramids and written glyph records? Ah! There's a most interesting reason for that, which ties in with an even older and sinister legend. But that's for me to tell at another time...

-nadge-
Anak of Mu / Atlantis