- This very young, but experienced malay acadaemic of a German university gave a lecture at Central Market Annex. He is clearly being a young radical arguing against the establishment building false myths. :

- Farish considered the idea that the wiggly bladed sword called a Keris is a cornerstone and symbol of Malay Culture : that it's Malay invented thing, common to all Malays and has magical powers..

Of course it was easy to dispell it..
- 1. the name isn't Malay
- 2. ancient examples exist all over SE Asia
- 3. far from it being a Muslim icon, early examples featured Buddist and Hindu Markings. Indeed he was able to demonstrate that the famous Kingfisher handled keris from Kelentan actually depicts a bearfed buddist man in a meditation posture.
- 4. In whatever culture it's only had symbolic power. Far from Kerises being weilded at every opportunity user's would have found them impractical : you can't get them out of a stabbed body and if your opponent has a longer item like a word or cutlass them you are stuffed cos you wouldn't be able to reach them
- 5 . Later examples had Chinese ivory handles fixed on to Indonesian metal. He hypothesised that Chinese merchants were involved in fusing the 2 parts as they themselves mixed aspects of the 2 cultures indeed early western suited Baba Nonas often had Kerises it's only later they appear in a more Malay costume.

- Farish said idea of lazy violent keris wielder was a stereoype invented by British in their simplication of history yet ironically it's being perpetuated by modern Malay politicians.

- So he criticises big monuments that are apparently being built.

- Finally since he had demonstrated the keris is something that occurs in Malaysia, but not just as part of recent Malay Islamic culture he advocatd it study as part of Malaysian studies not Malay studies.

- The kilt was invented only 350 years ago by an Englishman, Jolly Red Santa was invented only 50 years ago by Coca Cola's advertising agency so it's not surprising that the idea of the Keris also has a lot of falseness.

- In thinking it's a principle that simplest explanation is the truest one (Ockham). Humans like simple solutions anyway, but it's unfortunate that when things are complicated we don't like to say "we don't know", instead we make a simple explanation up and twist the facts to fit it.

- We live in a world if many lies, mainly because people would rather accept simple made-up explanations than admitting we simply don't know .. we don't like uncertainty.

- e.g. The Digereedoo We don't say that Australian aborigines have many racial groups and languages. Instead it's so easy to say "aborigines, ah those black fella's that play the digereedoo and throw the boomerang", when the digereedoo was historically only used by a couple of tribes.

- People all over the world search for uniting myths.
The experts tell us the romantic idea of British Celts is also a myth as there is no archaeological evidence of common religions and since Pre-Roman British never wrote anything down we really don't know much about them at all.

- Many modern Briton's like beer and football, but viewing figures show us that in reality less than 50% of people watch a match each weekend.

- So the same applies to Malays, without doubt 700 years ago there were pockets of Malay peoples scattered across Malaysian Peninsula Sumatra and maybe Borneo that have mostly common genes, but to extrapolate that out to say that they had an absolutely common culture is a bit much. Sure sometimes some were sword wielding pirates, but others were quiet fishermen or even hill farmers. The archaeological evidence shows that there were a whole series of superstitions and religions in the past some pockets were Hindus and/or Buddists in the past.

- I will perhaps unwisely express an opinion say that a lot of the political impetus comes from Islam because of the cultural baggage that comes along with it. As it is perceived 1. a perfect religion 2. Something that one cannot change out of. So the harder politicians can push back it's history and depth of establishment then the more anchored a Malay politicians message can be. This also fits well with the Malaysian political norm of race rather than ideology based political system "1. You are Malay so your "natural" party is the Malay party 2. I am the supporter of the true tradition which has always been the true tradition and always will be."
- Whereas change, progressness, improvement and evolution is the political message in some other cultures so the past is not so important to them. "Hey I've found this new idea : communism, Maoism etc"

- Modern Malaysians might be more united through modern shared values than through what superstitions our ancestors had- You don't have to be genetically related to have a common understanding of Teh Tarik or Ciplat.

- Magical Powers of Icons OK the idea of the Keris being a Malay invented weapon, common to all Malay and with magical powers. Farish should have mentioned that all icons have magic powers attributed to them from Budda's toenail to the Holy Grail.

- BTW The vampire films do the same with the cross : if you have 2 bits of wood nailed together God will save you, if you've left them at home that day God won't bother to save you, no matter how hard you scream. Likewise if you point your keris up or lay it on the ground you will have bad luck.
- National pride prevents the Americans from admitting John Logie Baird invented the television set.

- People all over the world search for uniting myths. People calling themselves African American I think controversially could be one. For many slavery and then 100 years of racial discrimination against their ancestors is a uniting factor, but beyond that there would have been a large diversity of different cultures and traditions from the Caribbean and thousands of tribes of Africa.

- (I am sure the majority have ancestors who were slaves and then for 100 years racially discriminated against so that their families were not able to build up economic bases as easily as say the majority of white people effecting the level of education and income they could have achieved. For most people these effects should have now been ironed out, for a minority it was never the case and there are other outsiders like concentration survivors or victims of anti-communist repression in the US itself. Though of course it is a hard fact that many negative statistics like chances of being in prison or violent death apply much stronger to black males so it is right to say it is group needs special help.)