Thursday, 12 January 2012

More Melakan History

The Kingdom of Melaka enjoyed a long and glorious history until the Portuguese attacked the town, looted the palace, stealing all the Sultan's treasure and some of the women and destroying everything else. One of the Porguguese commanders made off in a ship with the treasure and the women. The ship sank, much to the satisfaction of the Melakans, who subsequently retrieved their treasure (though not their women). The Portuguese tried to convert the locals, who were all Muslims, to Catholicism and failed. Many Melakans left, including the Sultan, who set up a new kingdom at Johor. Muslim traders from Arabia and India stopped trading with Melaka, which went into a steep decline. The Sultan attacked the Portuguese repeatedly. On one occasion he laid siege to the Portuguese and blocked their food supplies.

The small kingdom of Naning swore allegiance to the Sultan of Johor and helped him attack the Portuguese. When the Dutch attacked the Portuguese, the Sultan of Johor and the people of Naning helped the Dutch to oust the Portuguese.

The Dutch war against the Portuguese caused the death of 7,000 Melakans, 1,500 Dutch soldiers and 200 Portuguese descendents, partly due to the war, but mainly as a result of the Malaria epidemic that raged. 10,000 Melakans left Melaka and only 3,000 stayed.

Instead of rewarding the people of Naning for their bravery, the Dutch tried to tax them. Understandably, they refused to pay the tax. So the Dutch sent an expedition, under one of their captains, to read the riot act. Naning killed the captain and harbour master and 6 soldiers. War broke out between Naning and the Dutch. The Dutch governor fled, leaving behind his chest of 13,000 rial. In 1645 the Dutch retaliated against Naning, destroying homes and paddy fields. Naning tried to retaliate. In 1646 the Dutch attacked Naning again, this time destroying not only their crops, but also all their trees.

The Dutch handed over Melaka to the British.

In 1802 Dol Said was elected chief of Naning. He was the bravest chief they had ever had. In 1831 the British tried to tax Naning and of course Dol Said refused. In 1831 the British attacked Naning but were defeated. In 1832 the British cleared a 600ft wide road all the way to Taboh, Naning, destroying orchards and burning houses along the way. A furious battle took place between Naning and the British. Finally the people from Rembau helped the British to defeat Naning and Dol Said. This war cost the british £100,000.

Under the British, Lord Farquhar caused untold hardship when he decided to dismantle the fort, in case the Dutch regained control of the town and started to compete with Penang. He forced the local Melakans to try to destroy the fort and many of them sickened and died as a result. Then he started to dynamite the fort and ordered the forced evacuation of the Melakans to Penang.  Apparently it cost the British a fortune (£70,000) to almost destroy the fort.

At this point, 1810, Stamford Raffles arrived in Melaka and put a stop to the demolition and prevented Farquhar from moving the people of Melaka to Penang. Not because he was a humanitarian, but because he wanted to use Melaka as a base from which to attack Java. He gathered together 100 ships, which were anchored off the Melaka harbour. In 1811 the ships sailed to Batavia, where they landed in August and by September they had conquered half of Java. Then the Dutch surrendered.

Semantan, Pahang uprose against the British in 1891 and captured Lubuck Terna police station. Other leaders were inspired to organise a state-wide rebellion, which failed, due to Malay leaders who were still loyal to the British.

After the British-Siam treaty was signed in 1902, Siam agreed to appoint British advisors in states under its influence. Siam would dominate foreign affairs of Kelantan and Terregganu and receive ten percent of the income from these states. The British stripped local officials of their authority and taxed the locals. In 1919 the British advisor to Terengganu introduced new rules, limiting the freedom of the Terrengganu people. To add insult to injury, the British soldiers were rude and penalised those who did not obey the new rules. This resulted in rebellions in 1922 and 1928. The rebels captured the government buildings in Kuala Brang. The British police tried to recapture them unsuccessfully. The British sent the army to quell the rebels.

In 1941 the Japanese invaded the Malay peninsular and in 1942 Malaya surrundered to Japan. The British were taken prisoner. Allied forces parachuted into the Malaya jungles to fight the Japanese, who left in 1945. Malaya was once again under the rule of the British.

In 1950 there were riots in Singapore when the British courts ordered a Dutch girl, brought up in Malaya, to be forced to return to Holland against her will. The riots expressed the deep-seated anti-colonial feeling in Singapore at that time.

No comments:

Post a Comment