Using history to corrupt our minds

UMNO bent on re-writing history to champion only one race

Our current History textbooks are biased in the sense that they downplay the roles of the non-Malays in the development of our nation and its independence.

As an example, the previous textbooks used to adequately mention the contribution of the Chinese and the Indians in the development of the tin mining and rubber industries.

Now it is given scant attention.

There is also lopsided emphasis on Islamic Civilisation.

I personally counted that about 39% of the content of the current Form Four History textbook (compared to 15% in the earlier textbook) deals with Islamic Civilisation.

Interestingly, the current textbook has reduced more than 25% the amount of text related to Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism as compared to the earlier textbook.

Our History textbooks are also biased because they do not tell the whole truth.

For example, why can’t we state categorically that the founder of Malacca (Parameswara) was a Hindu prince from Palembang who died a Hindu?

The current Form 2 History textbook has just one sentence (not even in the main text) on Yap Ah Loy: Yap Ah Loy antara orang yang bertanggungjwab membangunkan Kuala Lumpur (Yap Ah Loy is one of the people responsible for developing Kuala Lumpur).

As for Gurchan Singh, his wartime exploits were contained in a textbook, Heroes of Malaya, which was widely used in Malayan schools in the 1950s.

- DR RANJIT SINGH MALHI,

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