Reclaiming our truly Malaysian history
By Centre for Policy Initiatives
The campaign for a truly Malaysian history was launched on Sunday by a group of academics and notable NGO figures on the back of strong public support, particularly from parents of schoolgoing children concerned about our biased KBSM textbooks.
It urges a review of the History curriculum which contains many shortcomings, including the overt and overly Islamic and Malay-centric slant, factual errors, half-truths, value judgments and politically motivated content.
The movement is pressing for an honest and transparent review of the syllabus in place of the current window-dressing exercise which will only serve to infuse the teaching of History with yet more propaganda. The existing textbooks need to be overhauled so that students will learn an accurate and well-balanced account of our country’s history.
Urgently requiring reform
During the campaign launch, historian Dr Ranjit Singh Malhi – a panellist on the movement’s watchdog committee – gave a presentation on aspects of our textbooks which are untruthful and not objective. (See follow-up in CPI tomorrow)
Furthermore, what Ranjit calls ‘value judgments’ in the History textbooks are printed in bold typeface and in a striking colour that stands out from the rest of the ordinary font. An example is page 255 of the Form Four textbook.
Here the textbook writers had imposed their own opinionated piece of fear mongering which reads:
“In short, the development and prosperity of Tanah Melayu succeeded in drawing the interest of the immigrants to come here and this situation is extended up to the present day. We should be proud that our country is the focus of pendatang asing due to our wealth and prosperity. Looking at it from another point of view, the local inhabitants should strive to be more industrious, display more initiative and be prepared to administer the wealth of this country, especially those who do not have a huge capital. If not, the orang asing who are always on the lookout for opportunities will capitalize on openings and take over our role, as has happened today.”
These alarming ‘Rumusan’ (conclusion) nuggets on the official moral of the story are redolent of the notorious Biro Tata Negara (BTN) brainwashing and scattered throughout the History textbooks.
Sins of omission
Ranjit also contends there is a “lopsided emphasis on Islamic civilization”. Ironically, words such as ‘wahyu’, ‘nabi’ and ‘rasul’ which are prohibited to Christians under the various state enactments with regard to Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation amongst Muslims) are, on the contrary, introduced to non-Muslim teenagers through the Form Four History textbook.
