Musnahnya Kota Portugis A Farmosa

Ramai diantara generasi kita hari ini berpendapat, tinggalan Kota A Formosa atau Pintu gerbang Porta De Santiago di Bandar Hilir adalah Kota Melaka. Mengikut rakan kami yang sedang membuat kajian dengan peruntukkan dana, Kota Melaka sebenarnya terletak di Kota Lukut bukannya di A Farmosa. Sepatutnya dimana Sultan Mahmud bersemayam, disitulah Kotanya. Mengikut bahasa Siam Kedah, Pha-mo-ser membawa maksud, bawa-tentera-berpengetahuan. Bagi kita, A Farmosa adalah nama khas dan dikatakan tidak ada makna dalam Bahasa Portugis hari ini. Kota Lukut adalah tempat bersemayamnya Sultan Mahmud Syah, Khalifatullah Akhirul Zaman sebelum baginda diserang oleh tentera Belanda dalam tahun 1641 dan Pha Mo Ser adalah tempat tinggal tentera Portugis baginda yang mengawal Selat Melaka selepas kematian Laksemana Cheng Ho.


Pintu gerbang Porta de Santiago di Kota A Formosa


Pintu Porta De Santiago hanya sebahagian kecil dari keseluruhan Kota A Farmosa yang dibina tentera-tentera Portugis. Bahagian lain telah diletupkan dan ditimbus oleh Inggeris.

Mengikut Undang Undang Kedah baginda masih bersemayam di Melaka (Istana Alam Syah, Kelang) dalam tahun 1657 (Undang-Undang Kedah,ms 98), selepas Melaka (Kota Lukut) diserang oleh tentera Belanda dalam tahun 1641. Kota Lukud letaknya di Bukit Raja berhampiran dengan Sungai Lukut, dimana terdapatnya lombong-lombong bijih timah yang diusahakan oleh penduduk tempatan dan orang-orang Melayu dari keturunan Minang. Jajahan Melaka ketika itu luas termasuklah Selangor, Johor , Pahang dan Kepulauan Riau. Negeri Sembilan ketika itu belum ada lagi dan dibuka dizaman Belanda menjajah Melaka (Kota Lukut). Kota tersebut kemudiannya turut diduduki Raja Jumaat ibni Raja Jaafar sekitar tahun 1800 keatas.


Istana yang dikatakan berada didalam kawasan Kota lukut.

Kota A Farmosa ini seperti kita ketahui terletak di Bandar Hilir dan telah dibina oleh orang-orang Portugis yang dikatakan menjajah Melaka. Sekiranya Melaka dijajah Portugis bermula tahun 1511, mengapakah Sultan Mahmud Syah masih bersemayam di Kota Lukud dalam tahun 1641. Maklumat kami mengatakan Maharaja Siam Islam yang memerentah Ayuthia menghantar tentera Portugis ke Melaka untuk mengawal Selat Melaka menggantikan armada laut Laksemana Cheng Ho. Orang-orang Portugis ini telah berdagang dirantau ini semenjak di Goa India dan tidak memusuhi Islam disebabkan Goa juga adalah sebahagian dari Empayar Monggol.

Kedatangan mereka ke Melaka kerana perentah Maharaja Siam Islam yang juga merupakan sebahagian dari Empayar Monggol India dan ini ada tercatat dalam sejarah Ayuthia di Thailand hari ini. Jika kita fikirkan berapa kuat sangatkah Portugis yang jauh merantau dari Portugal ketika itu untuk menentang tentera Monggol India ini, sudah pasti mereka mudah dihancurkan Monggol yang mungkin turut juga akan mendapat bantuan Kerajaan Parsi. Mereka memilih untuk bersahabat.

Kami berpendapat, Kota A Farmosa telah diletupkan oleh penjajah Inggeris bagi menutup bukti sejarah, sepertimana yang berlaku di Sungai Mas, pada Istana milik Raja Merong Mahawangsa, candi Lembah Bujang dan 15 istana lain di Kedah. Semasa meletupkan Kota A Farmosa ini, penjajah Inggeris ini sudah pun berkuasa di Melaka dan bukan lagi berperang ketika itu. Catatan Munsyi Abdullah dalam Hikayat Abdullah mengenai kemusnahan ini pula tamat dalam tahun 1843. Tidak mustahil kerja-kerja letupan dijalankan dalam tahun 1818 seperti tercatat dibawah.

Wasiat yang diterima dari Sultan Jaafar Muadzam Syah pula mengatakan Kota Raja Merong Mahawangsa dikatakan masih berdiri tegak tanpa penghuni semasa pemerentahannya, dari 1862-1876. Mengikut TNL Mahmud, ia diroboh/diletupkan dan ditimbus sekitar tahun 1876-1881 dengan peledak yang dibeli di Pulau Pinang. Tanah kawasan ini kemudiannya diberikan kepada penduduk kampong untuk didirikan rumah-rumah penduduk kampung. Begitu juga dengan kawasan Makam Raja Merong Mahawangsa di Kg Langgar, Merbok adalah kawasan perkuburan diraja yang jauh lebih besar, tapi tanahnya diberikan kepada orang awam untuk dijadikan ladang getah.



Malacca Fort - A Brief Background (sepatutnya A Farmosa Fort)
The fort was built by the Portuguese was completed in 1512. The structure was made up of stone on its seaward and river sides. The southern and eastern sides of the Fort consisted of a wooden palisade, a weak link in the Fort’s defenses. The circumference was 1,310 yards. When the Dutch took over the fort in 1641, much of the Fort had been destroyed or was damaged and had to be rebuilt. However, it was from 1665 to 1678, during Balthasar Bort’s term as Governor of Malacca, that the fort assumed its final form and this was the structure that the British acquired in 1795.The capture of the fort by the British was a strategic move to prevent it from falling into French hands during the Napoleonic Wars. They held it until 1818 after which they blew it up so that it could no longer be utilised to the advantage of any of its rivals(betul ke ni??). Stamford Raffles arrived from Singapore just in time to prevent the destruction of the gate known as Porta de Santiago – long believed to be the only remaining part of the fort (setelah dilapurkan oleh Munsyi Abdullah?). Until, today. After its destruction, the British carried out major land reclamation works in the 1920s and 30s. The land was turned into the field we now know as Padang Pahlawan. Dari, http://www.badanwarisan.org.my/malacca/malacca003.php

Jika kita fikirkan, apakah agenda sebenar penjajah Inggeris ini?, apakah maklumat yang cuba di elak dari diketahui oleh pengkaji sejarah kita hari ini?, apakah yang ada pada/sebalik dinding Kota Melaka tersebut?, mengapakah setelah dirobohkan ia di timbus pula? dan hari ini kita mulai menjumpai sebahagian dindingnya tertimbus di dalam tanah?, taktik yang sama sepertimana berlaku keatas Istana Merong Mahawangsa. Hal-hal seperti inilah yang sepatutnya menghairankan kita hari ini, seolah-olah ada sesuatu yang turut terkubur bersama tindakan mereka ini. Kegemilangan bangsa kita yang beragama Islam cuba ditutup oleh penjajah Inggeris dan sekutunya dizaman dahulu. Adakah kehilangan Kota Gelanggi akibat tindakan mereka juga?

Dengan itu kami katakan sekali lagi, kita tidak harus menerima bulat-bulat sejarah tinggalan versi penjajah ini, sebaliknya dengan cerdik pandai yang ada kita harus membuat kajian semula melalui bukti baru yang mula muncul. Entah apa pula yang akan akan jumpai oleh pengkaji sejarah kita, juga dalam keadaan tertimbus selepas ini. Bagi kami penulis diblog ini, tindakan ini tak lain dan tak bukan, bertujuan untuk menutup ketamadunan Islam di rantau ini . Penjajah Inggeris telah membawa sentimen Perang Salib yang berlaku di Eropah ke Nusantara dan tidak ingin ketamadunan Islam diagong-agongkan dan menjadi peninggalan sejarah. Tindakan ini berlainan sekali dengan penjajah Belanda di Indonesia yang tidak memusnahkan bangunan dan artifak sejarah dan masih berdiri kukuh hingga kini (tapi bertindak dengan cara lain). Ia mudah dijalankan kerja-kerja 'restoration', kerana bentuk asal masih ada. Runtuhan Istana Merong Mahawangsa, jika dilihat pada serpihan yang ditemui pecah seperti diletupkan bukanya roboh seperti tidak tersusun. Contoh yang terbaik boleh kita lihat pada runtuhan Angkor Wat di Vietnam, ia usang tapi tidak roboh berkecai, mahupun tertimbus.

Kita ikuti catatan Munsyi Abdullah,

Thus it went on for three months, in sicknesses, and other disagreeables, as well as in the men dying or breaking their legs and arms. While such were the circumstances, it was bruited abroad that the Governor had ordered a mine to be carried under the sea bastion, where he intended to deposit powder boxes, with the view of blowing it up. When this was known, people cried out, what kind of an affair is this? Hundreds went to see it, myself amongst the number; and true enough, they had dug holes about one fathom square, of great depth to their desire.

Then they dug the earth at the side of these wells, at about a fathom distance, in which they put the powder chests, to which they applied a fuse below the ground,--whose length was about ten fathoms,--made with cloth. The grains of the powder were rough, and as big as one's great toes. They then ordered these holes to be closed, which they plugged hard with stones and earth. They worked at these for five or six days, with ten or twenty men; after which they sent round the gong to make people aware that on the morrow, at eight o'clock in the morning, no persons were to come to the fort side of the river, or into the houses near, but to go to houses at a distance.

Then, on the morrow, came Colonel Farquhar on horseback, holding a staff in his hand. He ordered his men to mount the fort and drive all people across the river, which they did pell mell. Immediately after this he lighted the fuse. This being done he spurred his horse; and in about four or five minutes the mine was fired with a noise like thunder, and out flew stones as big as houses and elephants, right out to the sea. There were also stones that were carried across the river to the tops of the houses. The people, when they heard the sound, got into a high state of alarm an consternation, for they never had heard such a noise before. The mighty power of gunpowder blowing up into the air as it did stones as big as houses, filled them with astonishment.

Now only did people begin to believe that the English could demolish the fort. They now sagely wagged their heads, saying that great were the ingenuities and contrivances of the white people, but what a pity that such a beautiful fort should be destroyed as it were in a moment; for if it had to be erected again, how many years would this not take! For the glory of Malacca was its fort, and having destroyed this, the glory had gone out of it; like the corpse of a woman, the husband no longer glories in her face. But this is the dispensation of the Almighty, the world is not everlasting: what is He maketh to be not, and what is not he maketh to arise.

Now the stones of the fort were removed by people in various directions, some made houses of them, and some even carried them off to Batavia during the Dutch tenure (i.e., in 1818 to 1825), and lately also to Rhio (Riau), the English taking them on board ships to make the harbour of Bara. There are also some sunk in the river: others remain in heaps like hills to this time, for people to take as they like. Thus it came about that Colonel Farquhar made an easy job of demolishing the fort -- and all those who did not believe in the possibility now shut their mouths, not saying another word. And all the evil spirits that were in the brains of people went back to their originators, being afraid of the smoke of gunpowder, and the affair now stood thus, that the beautiful fort of Malacca was destroyed, blown to the winds by powder; but if they had tried it stone by stone, it would have been standing yet.

Sila baca artikel sepenuhnya ini disini,
http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/ellhpj/resources/abdullah.HTM