Once upon a time, there was one of the most recognized lands in Asia and the world known for its business activities involving trading in various products like spices, sandalwood, forest goods, ceramics, silver, perfumes and many other. They also provided premium services to assist the traders coming from all parts of the world. The number of traders involved in the exchange at their ports was huge due to the busy traffic sailing across the peninsula where the east met the west. It gave a great impact to the popularity of their trading products. Being well known, it became the centre of language learning. And during those days, everyone used the their language as a medium of communication to perform trading. The level of respect from trading friends around the world was magnificent. They provided gifts for the sultans and the people as a sign of appreciation and as a payment of royalty for trading on their blessed land.
The question here is, who were the people who conquered all of this great land mentioned, providing business opportunities for traders and businessmen coming from abroad? Whose language did thousands of people from outside the country learnt and used to interact? Whose sultans did they look up to during those days? What land did they use to run those businesses? There is only one answer to these series of questions. Malays. Yes, it was the Malay people who developed the land into the great Tanah Melayu. Even in history during those days, the Malays weren't farmers, also not shepherds. This land became civilized because our people turned it into a business hub to connect with the world across the borders. The early stages to our international business. People in Europe, America, Asia and other continents realized the existence of our small Tanah Melayu which was barely even seen on the map. And our businesses were even comparable to China. And who controlled it back then? The Malays!
It has always been in our blood to become traders and to create business opportunities but what is happening to our people today? What is happening to once a great nation? Why aren't we conquering the majority of assets and equity in our own country, the land that our ancestors built together? Is it true that we are losing piece by piece of what we have once owned? Why? These are questions that we need to absorb and ask ourselves and ANSWER!
We have all studied how the Europeans; Portuguese and Dutch took over our land but have we ever wondered why? It was because of power. They wanted to improve their influence through the expansion of power. If we were too small a country and had no use to them, it wouldn't have helped much for them to take over and expand but it was because of the strength that we had provided to our ports that made us useful and precious. So, by fact, Tanah Melayu was already recognized even before the British and Japanese came. It was even before the Portuguese conquered in 1511. That means, we must have at least started getting involved in the business world late in the 1400s. It has been over six hundred years now. That's incredible, don't you think?
Then the British heard about us. They heard, they came and they conquered. They were afraid that we would catch up to their advancement in trading. So they threw us to the lowest rank in the system and brought in people to our country and taught them about business to take over our positions. The British wanted to ensure that we couldn't fight back. That's how we lost everything, and became slaves to our own country. We didn't have money then, and lost the expertise in business, and flopped behind due to the lack of education provided to us. At the dawn of the British retirement, they built some schools for our royals like Penang Free School and Malay College Kuala Kangsar enough to ensure that we could survive right after they leave, carrying all our natural resources along. In between, there were the kamikazes trying to get attention who in the end were taught with two blasts of atomic bombs.
So now that we understand about our past, what do we do today? Do we just watch and go with the flow and letting people take away more of our belongings? I think being a Superman on a motorcycle or taking a dose of morphine to be Power Rangers are not good enough to rebuild our empire. Place a thought, dear nation. We have to fight for our rights. Don't let them fool us. Dominate!
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