MY VISIT TO MELAKA
During the last school holidays, we went to Malacca to do our research. Luckily, Farid our team member, resides in
Malacca. We stayed at his house and did our research for a week. There were over 25 interesting places to visit at
Malacca including the famous A’Famosa. Our motive is to observe what how the culture and ethnics stands there.
This charming city is a UNESCO world heritage site, with a rich trading history and multicultural heritage. Melaka is
a rewarding town to explore and is about two hours from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital city.
Culture plays a huge part in this state as it varies from lots of different ethnics comprising of Malays, A population
of Portuguese descent, who speak a Portuguese Creole, are the descendants of colonists from the 16th and 17th
centuries. Some of them still reside here at the Portuguese Square. There is also a sizeable number of Sikhs residing
in Malacca, and Sikhs from Malacca and abroad congregate in the Gurdwara (Sikh temple) situated in Jalan
Temenggong during the last weekend of May, to commemorate the death of its former priest, Sant Baba Sohan
Singh Ji, who was elevated to a saint upon passing away.
Some of the places we visited were the famous A’Famosa, St. John’s Fort and the Portuguese Square. We also
visited the Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum and the Malacca Sultanate Palace Museum. These multi-cultural,
ancient, historic yet wonderful places not only serve as a major tourist attraction, but, also represents Malacca as a
whole. As an example, the tough standing A’Famosa was made by the Portugese army fleet as a fortress in 1511
when the Portuguese invaded and conquered Malacca. Still today, the 500 year old fortress still stands tall and
although Malaysians would also hate the fact that these Europeans tried to take away the the land most precious
to them, yet they conserved and renovated the building, singing as an act of mutual respect to the Portuguese. This
shows that multi-cultural groups in Malacca cooperate and respect each other peacefully and live in harmony.
While enjoying traditional food made by Farid’s mother, we ought to come back home the day after to complete
our research. - Muhammad Wafie bin Sarbini
The beautiful city of Melaka
CRYING FOR HELP
We're not talking about strays, who wander off
with no way to go, we're not talking about
beggars, who sit and wait and hoping sympathy
from other people. It's about the common group
of people, where their lives were normal and
meaningful, until where evil temptations drive
them to the path of destruction, as they ruin
their lives afraid to cry for help.
We came here for one reason :
We can not take much more of this, we're
making ourselves heard. – Kasyfil Iman
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