Mr White, did you lie?

By Frankie D' Cruz, Malay Mail

IN a sea of whining mediocrity comes ‘hard truths’ — so pure you’d collapse if you snorted it.

More so, if it involved the core of our nation’s history.

I am still wobbling in shock over the row that early Malaya was never colonised by the British. It questions our fight for independence.

It’s a dispute we least need at the moment when the nation is attempting to glue together a multiethnic populace.

A quarrel we can do without unless the source for the uneasiness, the National Council of Professors, can factually substantiate its claims.

So far, its arguments have been shallow and I don’t see the learned council presenting a case against colonisation by the British.

The remarks by the scholarly council claiming the British never colonised Malaya was not what history taught us.

The council says the British introduced a system of indirect rule in Malaya which in practical terms could be
translated as — they ran the country.

That would effectively mean we were colonised.

Professor Datuk Dr Zainal Kling, in representing the council, said in a statement recently that Malaya had never been colonised by the British prior to Merdeka and had only been a protectorate of the British Empire.

Zainal also disputed the notion Malaya had been under colonisation for 400 years and that although the British had then governed the country, it had remained sovereign under the Malay rulers.

Malaya, he said, was only under colonisation during the Malayan Union era between 1946 and 1948 and during the Japanese occupation.

Only three Malayan States were colonised, namely Singapore, Malacca and Penang. The rest were protected States, he said. If that was the case, I should have failed History at all levels of education. And the history of Malaysia, hardwired into my memory bank, has to be deleted.

But I am not about do that because history has it that the Pangkor Treaty of 1874 paved the way for the expansion of British influence in Malaya.

The British concluded treaties with some Malay States, installing “residents” who advised the Sultans and held power in everything except to do with Malay religion and customs.

Whether you call it a true colony or protectorates, the fact remains we were ruled by the British.

Stubbornly pushing for unnecessary change in history will drive us to a national identity disaster.

Therefore, it would be illadvised to pursue the plan by Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Khaled Nordin for the history syllabus for schools to be revised following supposed new findings of the nation's past. Such an exercise would be flawed.

Just ask the British. See if Britain agrees that the British Empire never covered the whole of Malaya.

Imagine a nation where the elders and the younger generation have different takes about the British in Malaya and our fight for independence.

Clearly, the stand by the council of professors has far-reaching social and academic implications that can affect national unity and raise questions about celebrating Merdeka every Aug 31 since 1957.

Foot-in-mouth, evidently, kicks both ways. Changing the historical course of a nation arbitrarily creates uncertainty among its people who have long held in high esteem the efforts of freedom fighters to free our nation from white rule.

Malaysia must not be seen as willing to blur its identity. Malaysians must refrain from shredding legacy at every turn.

Maybe, just maybe, Mr White, the Brit, took us all for a ride!