Queen Kalinyamat Should Be A National Hero

JAKARTA - The name Queen Kalinyamat is not as popular as the names of Indonesian women fighters such as Cut Nyak Dien, Raden Ajeng Kartini, or Martha Cristhina Tijahahu. Some circles even still consider Queen Kalinyamat as a fictional character.

This is what makes the name of the daughter of the King of Demak Trenggana (1521-1546) not also crowned as a national hero.

In fact, a number of studies by academics have proven that Queen Kalinyamat is a great warrior woman from Jepara who succeeded in building the largest defense industry pact of her time.

In fact, according to academic who is also a military observer, Connie Rahakundini Bakrie, the Ratu Kalinyamat defense industry can build 40 warships in one year. One warship can carry up to 1,000 people.

Until the Portuguese gave the nickname "Rainha de Jepara, senhora poderosa e rica, de Kranige Dame". It means, "Queen of Jepara is a woman who is rich and powerful, a woman who is brave".

“That's authentic evidence, I found it in Portugal. There is a note in a letter to the King of Spain which reads something like, Our King just saw the ship was about to run away, one ship can carry 1,000 people. That era, of course, was extraordinary," said Connie on Helmy Yahya's YouTube account on March 1, 2022.

Not only in the eastern part of the archipelago, the existence of Queen Kalinyamat also reaches the western part of the archipelago and even Southeast Asia.

"The Sultan of Aceh just asked for help from this Jepara woman to fight the Portuguese. In fact, we know that the Sultan of Aceh at that time was an Ottoman partner," Connie continued.

Queen Kalinyamat lived several centuries before Kartini and led the archipelago's fleet of hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of soldiers to expel the Portuguese from Malacca.

Some sources say, while leading Jepara, which at that time was part of the territory of the Sultanate of Demak, at least twice Ratu Kalinyamat sent troops and combat fleets in large numbers to Malacca to expel the Portuguese.

The first is reinforcements for the Sultanate of Johor and the second is at the request of the Sultan of Aceh Darussalam.

In HJ De Graaf's book, The Beginning of the Resurrection of Mataram in 2001, it was stated that Queen Kalinyamat's first attempt to expel the Portuguese from the archipelago was carried out in 1550 or less than one year after her husband was murdered. From her hermitage, the queen who kept in touch with her trusted people to keep the government in Jepara running, received a letter requesting help from the Sultanate of Johor which was being threatened by the Portuguese in Malacca.

“Queen Kalinyamat granted the request and instructed her commanders to send 40 warships carrying more than 4,000 soldiers to Malacca. There, the Jepara fleet joined the Malay Alliance with a strength of more than 150 ships,” wrote HJ De Graaf. In addition, Queen Kalinyamat had also done the same for Maluku by sending war troops to help the Kingdom of Tanah Hitu from Portuguese aggression.

This indicates that Queen Kalinyamat has succeeded in building the nation's confidence as a maritime country that is respected by regional and world leaders.

It is not surprising that the Deputy Chairperson of the MPR RI Lestari Moerdijat continues to propose the name of Queen Kalinyamat to become a national hero.

"It was proposed in 2009, but was rejected because it was considered a fictitious figure," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Napak Tilas Ratu Kalinyamat event for the Maritime Heroes of the Archipelago at the Kolinlamil Headquarters, Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, Thursday (11/8).

Not only limited to a fictional character, the negative image of Queen Kalinyamat as vengeful and a queen who justifies all means in fighting her enemies must also be straightened out.

Lestari actually questioned, if considered a fictitious figure, why the Minister of Education and Culture of the Development Cabinet III period 1978-1983, Daoed Joesoef restored the tomb of Queen Kalinyamat. In fact, long before that, President Soekarno also made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Queen Kalinyamat.

“We succeeded in compiling an academic manuscript which was then submitted to the Central Java Government. By the Central Java government and in this case by the Governor of Central Java (Ganjar Pranowo) it has officially submitted to the central government," he said.

Previously, Lestari also briefly explained the results of research over the last two years by the Queen Kalinyamat Study Center led by Prof. Ratno Lukito. According to him, primary evidence has been found that confirms the fact that Queen Kalinyamat was the initiator of the concept of the maritime axis in the archipelago, through the formation of alliances with a number of kingdoms from Aceh to Hitu in Ambon against the Portuguese invaders.

These historical facts actually become the knowledge of the wider community so that the history of the nation can be understood properly.

“This is an attempt to straighten out a number of facts that have been distorted by legends and myths that have developed over the years. This effort is also part of the way the nation's children respect the sacrifices of the fighters in fighting for independence," said Lestari.