The city of Melaka on the south-west coast of the Malaysian peninsula had its heyday in the late 1400s when it was a world-famous port and market, trading spices from Indonesia and textiles from India. At any time, up to 2,000 ships could be seen at anchor in the bay.
But beginning in 1511 Melaka’s world was turned upside down when European colonialists moved in and forcibly took over. The Portuguese were the first conquerors, holding on to Melaka for the next 130 years. But in 1641, after a five-month siege and many previous failed attempts, they were finally routed by the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch then controlled the area for a century and a half until they in turn capitulated to the British in 1795. But Melaka’s decline under Dutch rule continued under the British, exacerbated by the formation in 1819 of the free-trade port of Singapore. Then, in the 20th century, Melaka was overrun by the Japanese during World War 2, suffering further privations.
Melaka has obviously been through a lot over the past 500 years, but its turbulent history has resulted today in a fascinating settlement with interesting architecture and its old town centre was recently added to the World Cultural Heritage Register. In all other respects, Melaka today is a growing, fast-modernizing city and popular destination for day trippers from Kuala Lumpur. Like us last Saturday. Lee Tuan’s sister and brother-in-law and niece took us down to Melaka and we spent a couple of hours strolling around the old historical centre. It’s a lot busier and more touristy than when we were last here 15 years ago, but it’s still very nice and well worth a visit. We walked through the history museum, then around Christ Church built by the Dutch in 1753 to commemorate the centenary of their occupation of Melaka.
At the top of a nearby hill overlooking the Straits of Malacca we looked through the ruins of St Paul’s Church, originally a small chapel, Nosa Senhora, built by Portuguese Captain Duarto Coelho in 1521 and later enlarged. The Spanish-born Jesuit missionary, St Francis Xavier was a regular visitor to the church around 1550 and when he died his body was interred here for nine months before being exhumed and taken to its final resting place in Goa, India. When the Dutch took over Melaka from the Portuguese, they changed its name to St Paul’s and used it for 112 years until their own church, the Christ Church, was built in 1753. Fifty years later the British moved in but in a break from tradition they used the church not for worship but for storing gunpowder. At the bottom of the same hill we inspected the crumbling white-washed gate of Porta de Santiago, all that remains of the Portuguese A Famosa Fort built under the supervision of Alfonso D'Alboquerque using the forced labour of 1,500 slaves in 1511.
On our way out of Melaka to return to KL we drove through the small Eurasian settlement on the eastern side of the city, home to today's descendants of the early Portuguese settlers who married Malay women.
