The other day I was reading some background information about Malacca and bumped into the following paragraph: "Malacca entered a golden age as a commercial and Islamic religious centre but in 1511 it was captured by the Portuguese. When the Dutch captured Malacca in 1641, the port was no longer an important trading centre."
I don't know about you but when I read the last sentence, I spotted an underlying criticism of Portuguese rule in the area, which, after reading the sentence below, couldn't be confused with a criticism of European colonisation in general: "It was the British that recognized the strategic position of the Malay states and their abundance of natural resources."
In view of the fact that, at some point, I was also told that the Portuguese influence was strong in the old town I was definitely curious to see what I was going to find.
We got to Malacca this afternoon and, shortly after a quick meal, went for a walk in the old town. It didn't take long for me to recognise how similar the architecture of so many buildings was to the architecture of Portuguese buildings. There was also something about the organisation of the space, its atmosphere, that made me feel at home; it was only the Asian products for sale and the names of the shops written in Asian languages that made me snap out of it. At the same time, I thought that everything was very beautiful - an opinion also shared by non-Portuguese citizens!
All of this to say that, even if the Portuguese disrupted trade in Malacca, even if they are responsible for many of the atrocities committed in the area, they have left something precious and worthy behind. And I really wonder if all the tourists I saw walking around in the streets would have come for a visit if it wasn't for that heritage...
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