Malaysian History - Are We Condemned to Repeat It?

Frankly, if we cannot decide what our History is even after 53 years journeying as a nation then we have failed miserably to live as a nation which our fore-fathers had envisioned.

By Damian Denis

During school days my favourite lesson used to be History. I loved History because it was something you could read as a story.

A story of how a Hindu prince from Indonesia seeks refuge and founded Malacca. A story on how Malaya gain independence without much bloodshed and how Sabah & Sarawak was coerced, cajoled and "cheated" to join the Federation of Malaysia.

Today we are at the crossroads. The debate is on our Malaysian History for our school syllabus and the debate is not getting any better. In fact, there has been a lot of mistrust against our Education Ministry on this issue.

Well, what can you say when the person in-charge of the said ministry is a racist bum who openly supports Perkasa.

Frankly, if we cannot decide what our History is even after 53 years journeying as a nation then we have failed miserably to live as a nation which our fore-fathers had envisioned.

I personally believe that History is about finding and telling the truth and sometimes the truth can be cruel especially to the powers that be. Can our politicians live up to that scrutiny and bare it all especially to our young ones in school?

I doubt it. Simply because they have not been able to withstand any alternative views which is contrary to their own world view.

For example think of Mahathir. He was a person who could not tolerate any dissent during his administration.

So any view that is contrary to that politician or his political party is considered seditious or dangerous and they are labeled as traitors, un-patriotic or whatever.

George Santayana once said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

For the past 53 years this country has been repeating the sins of the same government without fail. From 1969 we have never truly learned from our tainted past.

Why? We have only been conditioned to learn about the dark side of our Malaysian History. Till today our politicians has never failed to raise the specter of May 13 as a reminder to the non-Malays.

Sad to say after May 13, there were other racial riots e.g. in Kampung Medan in Selangor and in Kampung Rawa in Penang both in the 1990's. Did we learn anything people?

We are a people preferring to live in the past hoping that the past could come and rescue us (read:UMNO/BN).

We must go back to our foundation on what constitutes our Nation's History. Also, not forgetting our colorful past during the time of Tunku till Hussein Onn. Those were the good old days of national unity before the tyrant Mahathir came into the picture.

As a country we need to reclaim our History from the hands of these BN politicians which has been tainted by numerous scandals and what not. Should we entrust our national treasure to this bunch of goons? I fear that these day light robbers are already getting an upper hand today.

Let’s wake up and make BN history once and for all!