‘Mat Kilau’ inaccurate, says academic who wants honest narrative

 

The local blockbuster earned the ire of a Sikh association over how the community was portrayed.

KUALA LUMPUR: An academic said local blockbuster “Mat Kilau” did not paint an accurate picture of the roles played by the different races in the colonial era.

Hafidzi Mohd Noor was commenting on the historical narratives in the context of the film, which earned RM90 million in ticket sales within 33 days of screening in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

The Universiti Putra Malaysia lecturer said there should be an honest narrative so viewers could understand that it was not only one community that played a role in helping the British take control of Malaya.

“(It was) not only Sikh soldiers that served the British empire back then, unlike in the movie, but also the Malay (guards),” said Hafidzi during a forum titled “Mat Kilau Film & Historical Education” in Kuala Lumpur.

He added that historically, Mat Kilau’s uprising wasn’t just against the British colonists but also “the establishment”, which was the government of Pahang.

“So, it is very clear from that angle that all of us shared the responsibility of bringing the British in,” he said.

Institute of Malaysian and International Studies research fellow Helen Ting (second from left) says history lessons in secondary schools must move away from mere “memorisation” of facts.

However, he said this was not a time for pointing fingers, adding that while nobody could change the past, everyone could learn from it.

Last month, a group calling itself United Sikhs urged the Malaysian film industry to avoid producing movies that could hurt the feelings of a particular community.

The group said Mat Kilau, a film based on a historical figure, contained scenes where Sikhs, who were brought in from India as part of the British colonial forces, were seen “laying hands on old folk, children, and helpless citizens”.

The group said that while the controversial scenes in the movie were fictional, they were distasteful and hurt the feelings of Sikhs.

Meanwhile, fellow panellist Helen Ting called for the teaching of history in secondary schools to move away from mere “memorisation” of facts to critical thinking.

“We need to move forward to educating people to think critically, what is history? How do we determine if something is a historical fact, or not, or if it’s a ‘maybe’?” said Ting, who is senior research fellow of the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS).

She also questioned how secondary students were expected to make critical decisions upon leaving school without such skills, like voting in the general election to determine the fate of the country.

“This is ridiculous, so we need to demand more from our history curriculum,” she said.

The forum was held in conjunction with the launch of a book on the review of history textbooks for secondary schools by the Inisiatif Pengislahan Pendidikan Nasional (IPPN). - FMT