Perkasa leader among history syllabus reviewers

PUTRAJAYA, May 3 — Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin named Malaysian Historical Society chairman Datuk Omar Mohd Hashim to lead the History syllabus review committee.

Perkasa leadership council member Datin Paduka Prof Dr Ramlah Adam will act as deputy chairman. She is also Universiti Teknologi Mara's Administrative Sciences and Policy Studies Faculty dean.

Muhyiddin (picture), who is also the Education minister, said that the panellists will determine the direction and development of the curriculum in accordance to the needs of current and future challenges.

“The committee was set up to help look into the content of secondary school History curriculum and textbooks to ensure they were able to nurture patriotism and loyalty to the country among students and strengthen their identity as Malaysians,” he told reporters during a press conference, adding the appointment will be reviewed after one year.

Other members of the committee include historian Prof Tan Sri Dr Khoo Kay Kim (Universiti Malaya's Department of History); archaeologist Prof Datuk Dr Nik Hassan Suhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia); Prof Dr Danny Wong Tze Ken (UM's Department of History); Prof Dr Ranjit Singh a/l Darshan Singh (Universiti Utara Malaysia's College of Law, Government and International Studies); Assoc Prof Dr Ismail Ali (Head of Universiti Malaysia Sabah's Department of History); Assistant Prof Dr Shamrahayu Abdul Aziz (International Islamic University Malaysia's Law Faculty); Dr Neilson Ilan Mersat (Deputy Dean of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak's Social Sciences Faculty) and Dr Benedict Topin (Kadazandusun Cultural Association).

Muhyiddin had said on February 10 that the scope of the panel would be a “review” of the subject, and assured no major revamps will occur.

The Najib administration is facing intense pressure to review the subject, after historians had charged that secondary school history textbooks were currently too Islamic and Malay-centric.

Last year, TheSun reported textbook authors Dr Ranjit Singh Malhi and Ng How Kuen have alleged that school history textbooks were littered with factual errors and distortions, adding that these failed to give fair recognition to the country’s non-Malay nationalists.

Dr Ranjit, a former History textbooks author up to 1996, also claimed that secondary school history textbooks have been used to promote political interests.

He further claimed that when he once pointed out the errors and distortions, a ministry official had labelled him as “anti-national”.

Dr Ranjit added that historical personalities like Yap Ah Loy (third Kapitan Cina of Kuala Lumpur), Gurchan Singh (the “Lion of Malaya”) and Sybil Karthigesu were not given sufficient recognition in the local textbooks.

Ng added that in the stories on the country’s fight for independence, the contributions of the communists had been left out.

The newspaper also quoted Dr Ranjit as saying that it was inaccurate to assume that the new policy would instil a better sense of patriotism in students if the syllabus was inaccurate and failed to provide them with a sense of belonging to the country.

However, Perkasa leadership council member Dr Ramlah flayed historian Dr Ranjit for saying that the history syllabus had downplayed the contributions of non-Malays and other religions in the country’s history.

“The non-Malays do not understand this because they do not want to accept the concept of Malay supremacy (ketuanan melayu),” Ramlah said.