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'He who is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice.' —Barbarosa, Portuguese adventurer.
Thus began the wondrous journey of Malacca into historical fame and prominence. Its fortunes and misfortunes were destined by geography or, more precisely, by water.
The city entered the pages of written history in the 1390s with the founding of a Malay Empire by Parameswara, a fugitive Sumatran prince. He could not have chosen a better place to set up his kingdom, for Malacca sits on the pulse of divine waters flowing between two important oceans—the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. The first sultan shrewdly crafted a lucrative enterprise on the needs of passing traders and Malacca became 'the richest seaport with the greatest number of merchants and abundance of shipping that can be found in the world', as a Portuguese seaman then witnessed.
It was the golden age of Malay culture. A time when the courtly elite carried golden jewel-studded krisses, a weapon which has come to symbolise Malay royalty, and monarchical deeds and glories were meticulously compiled by court-appointed scribes into a series of chronicles, now known as Sejarah Melayu or the Malay Chronicles and considered a classic in Malay literature. A source of considerable pride and nostalgia in modern Malay minds, the illustrious epoch relives in an impressive array of exhibits and replicas to be found at Malacca’s Sultanate Palace, the Museum of History, and Museum of Literature.
A three-jewelled eunuch had much to do with the good fortunes of the pioneer sultanate in Malaysia. In 1405, Admiral Cheng Ho, the legendary Ming Dynasty envoy, sailed into Malacca's harbour in great style and grandeur with a crew of 37,000 in 317 ships, a display of power and prestige unheard of then. A tributary relationship soon developed and Parameswara was recognized as the king of Malacca by the 'Son of Heaven'. For the next 100 years, the Sultanate continued to prosper as a Ming Protectorate, greasing the wheels of maritime trading.
Malacca was Admiral Cheng’s logistical headquarters for a total of seven expeditions between 1405 and 1433, when he navigated his navy to such distant and exotic places as Ceylon, the Maldives, Mecca and Zanzibar. He was later deified by overseas Chinese, and the Sam Poh Kong Temple was dedicated to his memory. In the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, an inscription in stone commemorates his visit to the Chinese cemetery on Bukit Cina, where Ming-era Chinese tombs, withered nameless by rain and time, still stand in fortuitous numbers, being among the oldest and rarest Chinese relics in the country.
Among the opulent trade bazaars of antiquity in Malacca, Muslim merchants from Persia, Arabia and India first introduced Islam to the royal courts, becoming an entrenched religion when the rulers converted. At its height, the Sultanate of Malacca owned a tributary empire embracing the whole of the Malay Peninsula and much of eastern Sumatra, and won battles against the forces of the famed Siamese Kingdom of Ayutthaya. However, few authentic Malay relics remain from her glorious and distant past, save for the tombs of celebrated warriors and knights. The Hang Tuah's Mausoleum, Hang Kasturi's Mausoleum and Hang Jebat's Mausoleum survive in a shroud of fact and fable.
The geographical importance of Malacca as a maritime gateway to the Spice Islands caught the imagination of the Europeans in the late 15th century. The Portuguese soon made the scene. In 1511, Alfonso de Albuquerque, the second Portuguese governor of India, conquered Malacca for the King of Portugal. The city was to see colossal changes. Determined to make Malacca a colony and a Far Eastern stronghold, the Portuguese immediately constructed a medieval fortress with slaves and captives, demolishing mosques and tombs for building materials. At its grandest, A'Famosa encircled St. Paul’s Hill.
'To serve God and his Majesty, to give light to those who sat in darkness and to grow rich as all men desire to do', was a motto for successive generations of occupying colonial powers. The God was initially a Roman Catholic, and the earliest man of God to descend in conquered Malacca was one of the first seven Jesuits. He was no other than Saint Francis Xavier, who was enshrined in the St Paul’s Church and after whom the St Francis Xavier Church was named. Men from the Portuguese garrison married local girls and their descendants remain a culturally distinct community today, echoes of their distant lineages lingering on at the Portuguese Square and through the Intrudu festival.
In 1641, the Dutch—victorious after an eight-month siege and some heavy-duty fighting—became the new master of a Malacca in ruins. The town was rebuilt, but relegated to the status of military outpost because the Dutch opted for Batavia (Jakarta) as a mercantile headquarters. Dutch architectural legacy concentrate around Dutch Square. The handsome Christ Church and the massive Stadthuys are standing testimonies to 150 years of Dutch colonisation.
By the dawn of the 19th century, British fortunes were rising after several decisive victories in the European theatre of war and in the colonial world. After India, Malacca came under the possession of the British East India Company through the 1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London. The Queen Victoria's Fountain, a Diamond Jubilee commemoration, reminds us of the passage of the British here. Malacca remained in British hands until World War II. The British Empire was no protection against Japan, and Malacca made it through the darkest nights on the strength of her own people and faith.
The day arrived when history came full-circle, lands were returned, and the sultanate of Malacca slotted effortlessly into the independence chapters of Malaysia. The Proclamation of Independence Memorial and the Independence Obelisk near the Padang Pahlawan exist as much as tourist sights as irrefutable testimonies to the outcome of the independence struggle.
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