Art thou in heaven Bowie? Hang in there Tuah, wherever you may be

WE all need heroes. They come in all shapes and sizes and they are held up high in our estimation as we seek vicarious enjoyment from their achievements.

A week after the passing of David Bowie, local newspaper Utusan Malaysia chose to resurrect the polemic that tries to demystify the legend of Malay hero Hang Tuah.

Is Hang Tuah and the merry quintet of 16th Century Malaccan heroes mythical legend or did the silat showdown of that century actually take place?

For ardent followers of the blood and gore of the UFC; that palace fight where Tuah actually killed his friend Jebat – has been the perennially vexed subject that sometimes exercises the collective intellect of various Malay academics.

This time round, very much against the grain, the newspaper that makes no bones setting its stall defending Malay sanctity pitted both sides of the Hang Tuah divide.

Granted the defenders got all of page 20 of its Special Report while the antagonists had all of just over half of the next page to present their case.

LEGENDARY LIVES

What the detractors lacked in column inches, they made up for it for featuring two heavyweight scholars batting on their side.

Putting his neck on the line was academic Prof Khoo Kay Kim who some time back posited that the story of the 5 `Hangs’ as well as Hang Li Po should perhaps be reviewed to determine historical veracity. Also batting in his corner was his colleague Dr Ahmat Adam who counsels research rather than unquestioned acceptance on such matters.

In the `I believe in Hang’ corner was Dr Hashim Musa of Universiti Putra Malaysia and historian Khalid Hussin.

I personally don’t feel so much time and energy should be spent unearthing the truth of their existence. Far more important are the lessons that should be drawn from intrigue, acquiescence and blind loyalty that allowed the Portuguese to gain ascendency.

A HEAVENLY PLACE

So if the legend of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat were true, who is to say which one of them could now be residing ever so peacefully in the Great Palace in the Sky? Hang Tuah took the life of his friend Jebat in a display of loyalty to the Sultan. In the scheme of things, Tuah is deemed a hero, Jebat a traitor served his just desserts.

No such qualms though for the much-mourned David Bowie who departed this earth on Jan 10. The `Mascaraed One’ had no such issues about his deserved address in the hereafter.

By now if you are not 1 million percent into hip hop to the exclusion of everything else; you’d have listened to Lazarus – Bowie’s signature song from his last ever album before he succumbed to cancer.

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

In his life on earth, Bowie had admitted to tasting a little of the bacchanalia purportedly available on the smorgasbord menu in the court of the last Melaka Sultanate. He famously let on that he had at times chosen the path of a wonderfully irresponsible promiscuous life.

This included sampling relationships that even a hermaphrodite gastropod would find a little taxing if not confusing.

Could that, more than his penchant for face paint perhaps caused renowned aesthete Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing to wonder why Bowie in death attracted so much fuss.

Either way, the lives; loves and peccadilloes of such dead heroes (or zeroes as the case may be) are for the living to ponder.

For them, even in death, we just cannot leave them alone.