The story of Panglima Awang is the story of the Malay maritime world, implicating the geographical, linguistic and ethnic transcendence of the Malays, as well as Malay encounters with Others. In Malay consciousness, the facts cross into fiction. And the fiction tells the story of a Malay man from Melaka, enslaved by the Portuguese (the Ferringhis) and subsequently managed to free himself, in regaining his sense of self and identity. He was first identified as Enrique. But Enrique was obscured in history. Enrique or ‘Henrique’ was baptized on St.Henry’s day.

The story of Enrique as representing the Malay was given some prominence in the Bahasa Melayu press in recent times. See for example “Enrique Mewakili Kepakaran Melayu,” in Laporan Khas Sabtu, Utusan Malaysia, 9 July 2016, pp. 10-11. in 2019, I participated in a forum themed Panglima Awang@Enrique de Malacca: Melaka, Globalization and Malay Civilization. In the forum, I suggested a re-understanding and a re-interpretation of the past of Melaka, Malay society and the Archipelago.

These must still be based on one of the most credible accounts on the existence of Enrique; that is from Antonio Pigafetta’s Primo Viagio Intorno al Mondo (First Voyage Around the World) which appeared in 1536. It was first published in French in 1525 with the title Le voyage et navigation, faict par les Espaignolz es Isles Mollucques.

In the 1960s, Panglima Awang was chosen as a text for the subject Literature for the Senior Cambridge (SC) and the Malaysia Certificate of Education (MCE). In Singapura, it was compulsory reading for Level 3 for Malay secondary schools.  Owing to its popularity, the novel was translated into English with the title A Malay among the Portuguese by Ahmad Husain in 1961.

Panglima Awang is  created by Harun Aminurrashid (1958). Without his vision, Panglima Awang fades into oblivion. Harun’s work represents a subconscious rebranding of Malay identity in modern times. The manuscript, completed on 11 September 1957, was published the following year, and was reprinted several times in October of 1959, January and June of 1961, November 1962, as well as January and November of 1964.  It is significant to note the time of its publication and subsequent reprint – the aftermath of the independence of Malaya and subsequently, through the formation of Malaysia.  It set the scene for nation building and nationhood, as well as national identity and a response to colonialism. Panglima Awang has arguably given imaginative support to the Malay struggle.  Harun was inspired and used information from three major newspaper sources, apart from his research through the encyclopedia.

Two of these are the Singapore-based daily Straits Times and Medan-based Waspada. They are by G.E. (1955), “First man to sail round the world was a Malay (Straits Times Special Feature, 22 October; and by Mohd. Said (1956), “Pengeliling dunia yang pertama adalah saorang Indonesia, 2 July respectively. Earlier Harun had read Mohd. Taha Suhaimi (1944). “Anak Melayu yang Pertama Mengelilingi Dunia” in Fajar Asia (November).  No mention was made by Harun, nor Koster on other sources such as encyclopedias.

Harun’s rewriting of the colonial condition has undercut, “one of the greatest tales of exploration justifying European colonialism” – that of the circumnavigation of the world by Ferdinand Magellan. (Fernao de Magalhaes) between 1519 and 1521.  In “A Voyage to Freedom: Imagining the Portuguese in Harun Aminurrashid’s historical novel Panglima Awang” historian G.L. Koster (2009)  penetrates the Feringghi as the “problematic Other.” Here the Ferringghi in the Malay imagination was treacherous and cruel.

Koster traces Harun Aminurrashid’s Panglima Awang, describing him as of the calibre of Hang Tuah. Instead of Magellan, Harun’s Panglima Awang makes his trusted Malay slave Enrique its hero. Enrique was given the Malay name of Panglima Awang.  The novel thus turns into an allegory of the Malay historical experience of colonialism with the Portuguese, Dutch and British. From the novel, there are differences of the attitudes of the Malays toward the Europeans. The Portuguese and Dutch were seen to be exploitative, whereas the British with the ethical manifestation associated with ‘human colonialism.’[1]

Harun stated in his 1958 Foreword in Panglima Awang, the man who had completed the first circumnavigation might well not have been the greatly praised explorer Magellan, who was killed on the Philippine island of Mactan, but a young Malay, whom Magellan had baptized as Enrique, who had been bought by Magellan from Albuqurque in Melaka.  Colonial historians had closeted Panglima Awang. He is still not out of the shadows of Magellan.

Panglima Awang or Enrique Malacca has been identified as the first Malay to circumnavigate the world, and not Ferdinan de Magellan as claimed by many western historians.  After the fall of the Melaka Sultanate in 1511, Panglima Awang was captured by the Portuguese, brought to Portugal dan subsequently followed Magellan on his voyage in search for a route to the East. This was between 1511 and 1521. After the death of Magellan in Lapu-Lapu in the Philippine islands, the voyage was continued by Panglima Awang.

Completing the novel in 11 days after the proclamation of the new nation in 1957, the story may be summarized as follows. Malacca has been conquered by Albuquerque who has been treacherously aided by foreign merchants within the city.  The Sultan has fled. Commander Awang, who led a small guerilla band, fights on but is captured in a raid on a Portuguese ship and taken to Goa to be sold as a slave in Portugal. 

Fernado (Magellan), the ship’s captain, comes to respect Awang, and buys him from Albuquerque.  Magellan called him Enrique and made him his personal assistant.  In Portugal, Awang is warmly received as almost a member of Fernado’s family. 

Mariam, Fernado’s sister, falls in love with Awang. But Awang remains faithful to Tun Gayah, the fiancé he left behind in Melaka. Meanwhile, Fernado is unable to get Portuguese support for a voyage to prove his theory that the world is round.  Disillusioned by his countrymen’s inhuman attitude towards their slaves, Fernado goes to Spain and became a Spanish citizen.

---