Friday, September 01, 2006
The deliberate omission of history
Why was there such a hue and cry when statistics indicating that a very substantial number of students in the government school system were made up of just one ethnic community? I do recall the former Prime Minister lamenting this sad state of affairs and during this current administration's rule, the New Straits Times had frontpaged a story about how the "rules of the game" are going to be changed i.e racial compositions in schools, classrooms, playtime etc, in order to make the school system appealling and more in tune with current national needs. This was swiftly applauded by educationists, civil society and government officials. A fine move of course - many more would have cheered quietly when that news broke.
But blame me for my cynical nature, honed by one too many disappointments, I was not exactly ready to jump out for joy. This is Malaysia and the saying cakap tak serupa bikin comes to mind. On the eve of Merdeka, news broke of school history books being re-engineered to convey the message that only one ethnic group was responsible for giving birth to Malaysia. The Education Ministry's token MIC representative P. Komala Devi said that the ommissions of certain personalities (all of them non-malay) from the text books was to make history "less boring".
I am not sure if Ms Devi was instructed to convey this "less boring" line as an excuse or did she ,befuddled to say anything more faintly logical when pushed for an answer from irate MPs, come up with this brilliant response. Whatever her reasons, the deliberate omission of history continues to undo the stitches of the fragile fabric of trust that Malaysians still have for the powers that be.
This is a clear demonstration of racial engineering which is in contempt of the official government line - to foster racial unity from the level of schoolchildren, and the larger messsage that Malaysia is for all Malaysians, and that the country's most valuable resource is its human capital ,irrespective of race, creed and religion. The latest move to sideline, downplay, eliminate the importance of key personalities from the historical landscape of Malaysia is something frighteningly akin to the book burnings practised by the Church in the Middle Ages or more recently, to the Nazification of Germany in the 1930s.
Already the Education Ministry have erred terribly with its social engineering tasks which has results in thousands, no make it tens of thousands of Malay university graduates who can't read, write or speak basic English and lack basic job skills. It is a even bigger tragedy for Malaysia if the Ministry plans to colour the views of young children with a selective view of history that fits a certain political agenda, which ultimately is likely to be a costly failure eventually. It is widely said that without knowing your history, you don't know your future. Malaysia is wading into dangerous murky waters by attempting to rewrite history. ¶ 2:06 PM
But blame me for my cynical nature, honed by one too many disappointments, I was not exactly ready to jump out for joy. This is Malaysia and the saying cakap tak serupa bikin comes to mind. On the eve of Merdeka, news broke of school history books being re-engineered to convey the message that only one ethnic group was responsible for giving birth to Malaysia. The Education Ministry's token MIC representative P. Komala Devi said that the ommissions of certain personalities (all of them non-malay) from the text books was to make history "less boring".
I am not sure if Ms Devi was instructed to convey this "less boring" line as an excuse or did she ,befuddled to say anything more faintly logical when pushed for an answer from irate MPs, come up with this brilliant response. Whatever her reasons, the deliberate omission of history continues to undo the stitches of the fragile fabric of trust that Malaysians still have for the powers that be.
This is a clear demonstration of racial engineering which is in contempt of the official government line - to foster racial unity from the level of schoolchildren, and the larger messsage that Malaysia is for all Malaysians, and that the country's most valuable resource is its human capital ,irrespective of race, creed and religion. The latest move to sideline, downplay, eliminate the importance of key personalities from the historical landscape of Malaysia is something frighteningly akin to the book burnings practised by the Church in the Middle Ages or more recently, to the Nazification of Germany in the 1930s.
Already the Education Ministry have erred terribly with its social engineering tasks which has results in thousands, no make it tens of thousands of Malay university graduates who can't read, write or speak basic English and lack basic job skills. It is a even bigger tragedy for Malaysia if the Ministry plans to colour the views of young children with a selective view of history that fits a certain political agenda, which ultimately is likely to be a costly failure eventually. It is widely said that without knowing your history, you don't know your future. Malaysia is wading into dangerous murky waters by attempting to rewrite history. ¶ 2:06 PM
