KLSCAH: History textbook neglects non-Malay contributions to KL

 

The Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH) has urged Putrajaya to remedy the Form 3 history textbook that inadequately documented the contribution of Chinese and Indians in Kuala Lumpur.

KLSCAH said every ethnicity should have a fair share of their place in history but the Buku Teks Sejarah Tingkatan 3 (first print 2018) focused on the history of social changes, historical political systems of various states under colonial rule and how local societies resisted the colonialist.

"However, the latest version of this Form 3 history textbook ignores the historical facts about the contributions of other ethnicities such as the Chinese and Indians to the local community. 

"There were only a few lines of text introducing them briefly without the addition of details," KLSCAH said in a statement today. 

The association added that the textbook did not credit Chinese community leader Yap Ah Loy's role in the early days of Kuala Lumpur, where he re-established social order and reconstructed Kuala Lumpur following a civil war.

"Yap was also a pioneer of multicultural cooperation for all ethnicities and recognised by the sultan of Selangor and British officials. Other Chinese and Malay state rulers were also in close cooperation.

"Whether they were leaders of Malay or non-Malay communities, the contributions of such historical figures to the developments of Kuala Lumpur have almost disappeared in the content of these textbooks," it said.

Chinese community leader Yap Ah Loy

These figures - Yap, Raja Abdullah Raja Jaafar, Sultan Puasa and Abdullah Hukum - were only given a passing mention on page 61 of the textbook, under the "thinking skills" section meant for students to hold group discussions.

The historical contributions of other ethnicities to Kuala Lumpur's development, KLSCAH said, must be addressed because many different communities worked diligently to make the national capital what it is today.

It said Malaysia is a diverse country and only recording the opinions of one ethnicity will not capture the nation's concepts of diversity and inclusivity.

In view of this, it proposed that the government seek scholarly opinions from all ethnicities on Kuala Lumpur's history and revise the history syllabus.

"KLSCAH believes that the primary goal of publishing history textbooks should be on the elaboration of the nation's history. However, a lack of an all-encompassing teaching model of history will only narrow the students' view on our nation's history, which will not help promote unity across cultures.

"Only by objectively restoring historical facts of our ethnicities in the country’s development, will citizens have a proud sense of identity and belonging as Malaysians," it said.

Historian Ranjit Singh Malhi had previously pointed out that the Form 1 to Form 5 history textbooks all contained glaring errors and that 17 out of 18 authors of the series were of one ethnic group.

Ranjit had also accused the authors of bias. - Mkini