Chandra Muzaffar should understand history before passing remarks, says MCA

(The Star) – MCA has called out Yayasan 1Malaysia Chairman Dr Chandra Muzaffar for supporting the exclusion of the late Tan Sri Wong Pow Nee from the Year 6 history textbooks used by Chinese vernacular schools and for making insensitive remarks regarding the issue.

This comes as a response to an article written by Chandra in support of the decision by the Education Ministry not to include the name of the late Tan Sri Wong Pow Nee as one of the leaders who formed Malaysia in textbooks.

MCA education consultative committee secretary Khoo Soo Seang said in a statement on Wednesday that Chandra had failed to fully understand the whole issue.

“Instead of making insensitive comments, Dr Chandra should have sought to understand the whole issue first,” he said.

Khoo, who is also Tebrau MP, said that MCA is not clamouring for Wong to be recognised as one of Malaysia’s founders but is against the exclusion of his name from a list of leaders’ names that had contributed to the formation of Malaysia on page 10 and 11 of the Year Six history textbook.

He said that Wong not only served as Penang’s first Chief Minister but was also the only other Malaysian besides then-permanent secretary of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Tun Ghazali Shafie in the Cobbold Comission.

Khoo added that the Cobbold Commission was set up to determine whether the people of Sabah and Sarawak were supportive of the proposal to merge with the Federation of Malaya and was therefore instrumental in laying the foundations of the formation of Malaysia.

“If Dr Chandra feels that the Year 6 history textbooks was right in naming Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdul Razak (representing Malaya), Tun Fuad Stephens and Tun Mustapha Harun (Sabah), Tun Temenggong Jugah , Stephen Kalong Ningkan and Tan Sri Ong Kee Hui (Sarawak) and Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore) as the building blocks in the formation of Malaysia, then why was Wong Pow Nee’s name excluded while Tun Ghazali Shafie was listed in the textbook?” asked Khoo.

Khoo said that he hopes the Government will act fairly by including Wong’s name into the Year 6 history textbooks so as to “allow his contributions to be remembered and to reflect the real historical truth”.

“History textbooks should be written based on facts and should not be changed based on whims and fancies, because if we do, then the history that is passed down to future generations is no longer true history,” said Khoo.

On Dec 22, Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said that Wong’s name would not be added as the history textbooks had already been printed.

MCA has been fighting for the inclusion of Wong, in pages 10 and 11 of the Year 6 textbook, which features a list of leaders who formed Malaysia.

Wong is listed as a member of the Cobbolt Commission on pages 4 and 5 of the textbook.