The Chronicle of Hang Tuah: Revisited

of my past life:

saya dibesarkan dengan gambaran bahawa Hang Tuah adalah seorang hero, dan seterusnya wajar ditauladani..Hang Jebat pula dilabel sebagai pengkhianat, dan pembelot kepada Tuanku Sultan Melaka ketika itu..

of summer 2010:

saya mengambil keputusan untuk pulang ke Malaysia, walaupun cuti hanya selama 3 minggu...mungkin rasa kangan kepada keluarga melupakan seketika kepada faktor wang tambang yang agak mahal..alhamdulillah, keputusan untuk pulang agak tepat kerana ditakdiran ibu saudara yang dikasihi dihingapi penyakit kritikal ketika saya sampai..so, thank God, i managed to stay by her side in the hospital almost a week..plus, now, she's getting better and better..

mungkin kerana terlalu lama berada dalam keadaan dormant, saya meronta2 kebosanan di rumah..bukan bosan melihat wajah kedua ibu bapa tercinta, namun minda terasa semakin berkarat..maka, saya pun menggeledah rak buku lama, tinggalan arwah atuk..akhirnya terjumpa kepada sebuah buku usang mengenai Hang Tuah vs Hang Jebat..(okay, i forgot the actual title of the book)..buku ini dikarang oleh seorang penulis melayu masyhur, di mana gaya bahasanya begitu klassik..lebih menarik lagi buku ini diolah2 dalam bentuk penceritaan dan dialog..jadi, situasi yang kononnya berlaku diantara Hang Jebat dan Hang Tuah menjadi lebih jelas

so, as i was reading the book, i always kept in my mind that Hang Jebat was a traitor (at least, it was what my teachers told me)..so, i was a bit prejudice..yet, as i was following the story, something popped up in my mind - for what reasons Hang Jebat is a traitor? because of the revenge he took for the sake of his brother, Hang Tuah? for showing the Sultan that the decision to punish Hang Tuah was wrong? to fight so that the true justice would prevail? and the list goes on..i cannot find any other reasons, except Hang Jebat threw away the Sultan from the throne, and therefore, took in charge of Malacca's Palace..was it considered wrong to fight against the unjust Sultan?

of Winter 2010/2011

to be true, i never continued to find the answers for all questions that popped up in my mind while reading the book in last Summer..well, why should i care enough since the truth/credibility of the chronicles of Hang Tuah is still under dispute? some claimed to find Hang Tuah's grave somewhere in Jawa, and others denied the findings, and etc..

but, as i recently bumped to some related posts of the importance of revisiting this chronicle, i found these questions are worth to ponder..why? of course, we don't want to give the wrong message to our kids..early educations is extremely important, and thus should be done accordingly and properly..if we don't really rethink of this story, we might convey a distorted message to kids so to follow blindly of those in power, even though these people are doing wrong..or the worse, we might have kids, with fanatic mindset! 

yet, if this chronicle was merely a story-telling, who were then responsible to spread this propaganda? why Hang Jebah should be portrayed as a traitor, rather than a justice fighter? i think the real traitor was the one who told the Sultan the lie about Hang Tuah! 

again, in Islam, we are told to obey our Ruler, as long he's doing good to people..if he was not, we are free from any burden to follow his commands..so, this concept should be made crystal clear so that we are not misleading our younger generations..

of my disclaimer:

i might be wrong on this topic since my knowledge on our history is very limited..hence, i'm open to any criticism in regards to this particular topic! ;)