History Racial Prejudice

Confusing history with
racial prejudice

Posted on December 14, 2010 by JEBATMUSTDIE52 Comments

The Sun produced on its front cover yesterday, an article entitled “History Textbooks
Biased, says writer”. I would agree to some parts of the article but in most parts, it actually had
proved correct to what I have said in this original article of mine.

The reporter, Zakiah Koya, interviewed two academicians named Dr Ranjit Singh and Mr Ng How
Kuen regarding their opinion about the current history syllabus. Bear in mind, these two
academicians are currently working within the education system whereby they play an active part
in producing what our children is currently refer to in schools.
Some of the excerpts are:

“Secondary school history textbooks have been used to promote political interests. It should be a
scholarly pursuit and not politically-motivated,” said Ranjit who showed the Sun history textbooks
with errors and exaggerated facts.

“Five out of 10 chapters of the Form Four history textbook deal with Islamic history as compared
to only one chapter in the earlier textbook. The intention of the earlier syllabus was to expose our
students to World History,” he said when commenting on the announcement that the history
syllabus is being reviewed and that the subject will be made a compulsory pass in the Sijil Pelajaran
Malaysia from 2013.

He also said certain historical personalities, such as Yap Ah Loy (the third Kapitan China of Kuala
Lumpur), were not given due recognition. Yap played a major role in the development of Kuala
Lumpur as a commercial and tin-mining centre, particularly after the fire of 1881,” he said, adding
that the Form Two history textbook had only one sentence on Yap as “one of the persons
responsible for developing Kuala Lumpur”.

“There is also no mention of freedom fighters such as Gurchan Singh (“Lion of Malaya”) and
Sybil Karthigesu who resisted the Japanese Occupation of Malaya,” he said. (Gurchan secretly
distributed a newspaper during the Japanese occupation while Sybil, who was tortured by the
Japanese, and her husband treated wounded guerillas of the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese
Army).

“The 1996 Form One textbook stated inter alia that a few Indian merchants lent their junks to the
Portuguese in their attack on Malacca. I know of no historical evidence to support this fact,” said
Ranjit.

“Six Chinese captains agreed to lend their junks to the Portuguese due to their hatred for Sultan
Mahmud who had earlier detained them and their men to help attack Aru. The Portuguese used
only one junk provided by one of the Chinese,” he said.

Ranjit pointed out that the decision to make history a must pass subject for SPM from 2013 was
rooted in a wrong premise. “It is not right to assume that students will study history seriously and
will be more patriotic after clearly understanding the Federal Constitution and the social contract.

“Patriotism thrives when citizens have a ‘sense of belonging’ and perceive themselves being
treated equitably,” he said.

Ng, meanwhile, fears that making history a compulsory pass subject would mean one would have
to subscribe to one’s version of events or risk failing the entire examination.

Ng, whose textbooks are still used in Chinese-medium primary schools, however stressed that it
was timely to review the syllabus. “We always had to follow the curriculum given by the MOE and
therefore the ruling parties have the upper hand in defining our history.”

As an example, he said when writing on the fight for independence, the contributions of the
communists were left out.

He said history books should be written by historians and not teachers as the former were not
bound by the curriculum. “Students do know the truth but as textbooks are written according to
approved curriculum, students end up learning history that is skewed,” said Ng

I mentioned earlier in this very article that people must not view history of this country from
racial perspective. The fact that both of the academicians above chose to highlight the contribution
of their own race just gave proof to my assertion that racial kind of thinking (instead of being Orang
Malaysia kind of thinking) had made them suffer from one-upmanship. i.e., the ‘kiasu-ness’ that
his particular race contributed more than other races; or his particular race should not be found
guilty of any mistakes made in the past.

First and foremost, the reporter above did not do a thorough homework in getting enough
information from all parties. Did she interview Professor Dr Khoo Kay Kim? Has she interviewed
a representative from the Minister of Education? If The Sun wishes to have a balanced view in their
reporting, Zakiah Koya should have at least given the view from the other side of the divide so that
the party accused of being biased can have the right to defend themselves within the same opinion
piece.

Now that is what good and ethical journalism is. News reporting must not be similar to the one-
sided propaganda machine of a political party say for example, the propaganda news that are
coming out from the office of the PKR’s Information Chief. Anyhow, both academicians above
failed badly in the effort to be professional. Writing history textbooks must be based on events that
were so prominent that they actually changed the course of history. If we want to put every single
bit of information within the textbooks of our young ones, their textbooks will be voluminous and
super thick. And that is just on Malaysian history! Together with all the massive volume and
information on the rest of the world, our children will have to study history syllabus as huge as our
national library! Thus, when Ranjit Singh wanted the history books to include the adventures of
Gurchan Sing and Sybil Karthigesu, as mentioned before, he was thinking from his own racial
prejudice. No doubt that both historical figures were important. But in the larger context, were they
more prominent than say, Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) and Malayan Union?

If that is the case, all descendants of Gurkhas and all the unknown Malay heroes would want their
respective historical figures to appear in the history textbooks. Even I would want my great-great-
great-great-great-grandfather to be included in the history textbooks as he and his comrades fought
off Dutch army in the battle near Serkam, Melaka about two hundred years ago.

The point is, you must not be looking at history using racial perspectives when it comes to history
syllabus. George Washington, in the textbook of American children is a noble founding father, not
the owner of black slaves. Abraham Lincoln in the American textbook is a great leader who
catapulted America to become the land of the free and of liberty. Although some historians deemed
him as racist with his anti-blacks’ remarks, he is revered by all Americans as a great leader. Now
what can we learn from these two academicians of ours?

We know that they are a couple of ‘exclusionist historian’. They want to exclude the whole
generation of the young from learning about their country through a standardised version. History
must be standardised so that children can be instilled with knowledge of their country. And mind
you, history that we know is not a total lie. Those two merely wanted more information to be
included in the textbook so that the contribution of some races be prominently shown in the
textbooks. However, I was disappointed with Ng when he said that the communists contributed to
our nation building too. Now that is a total blasphemy. Yes, Chin Peng fought the British and
the Japanese. But to what end? Were their intentions pure? Were they really fighting for
freedom? Chin Peng admitted that they fought because they wanted to pursue communism ala
China in this country. He wanted this country to be the Communist Republic of Malaya (or any
other name besides Malaya). That is why he continued to fight and kill the Malaysians among us
even after we had achieved independence. In Perjanjian Baling in 1955, he suggested to Tunku
Abdul Rahman to secede half of Semenanjung Tanah Melayu to him so that this nation will be like
North Vietnam and South Vietnam. One is communist republic with him as President, while the
other is democratic with constitutional monarchy. So, Ng, we want to celebrate Chin Peng this
way? Chin Peng and his CPM is relegated as butchers of Malaya, and this is how our children
should remember them. How do you reconcile the fact that they killed many of our citizens in the
past? Again, racialised thinking from this Mr Ng.

But fear not dear exclusionists, Malaysia has never banned any historical journals from the public.
Even Chin Peng’s book can be purchased in the bookstores. I read more about KMM and Mustapha
Hussain not from the textbooks but from MPH. I read the achievements of Thutmosis III and Khalid
Al Walid well in my early 20’s from encyclopedias. But I sure studied the date of independence
and the list of Kings in Malaysia as well as the basic history of this country when I was seven, in
school. I learned how to be Malaysian and how to love this country before I reached eight years
old. If Ranjit Singh wants to highlight the exploits of the people he mentioned, he can always
publish books like how Chin Peng did.

Mainstream history will unite the young Malaysians and make all races think like Orang
Malaysia. Yet, Ranjit downplayed the importance of history because to him, patriotism is instilled
when the children perceived themselves as being treated equally. What a strange premise that is.
Does he think children that young would think they are treated unequally? Do you think they are
concerned with affirmative action at that age? And if Ng thinks that the present history syllabus is
skewed, what kind of history he think is not skewed? A history where Chin Peng is a hero? I wonder
whether those two academicians are wearing their correct hats. Or were they thinking more like a
politician?

Overall, yes, the syllabus needs to be improved. But not to kow-tow to these exclusionists and
racially charged historians because the arguments they brought forward will be a huge contributor
to further segregate our society and will give rise to apathetic Malaysians.

Thank you.

(Jebat Must Die is a part time blogger who wishes nothing more than to see the Battle of Serkam,
Melaka be included in the history textbooks but understood the fact that the brain capacity of a
child from the age 7 to 17 may not be big enough to digest a billion-information contained in
the history of the world. They have other subjects to study too).