The Malaysian Insight

AN independent education committee is undertaking the process of scrutinising the contents of secondary school history textbooks to determine factual biases.

The committee – National Education Reform Committee – is combing through history books for Form 1 to Form 5 to look into what facts needed to be corrected or included, said its chairman, Tan Yew Sing.

Tan, who is a well-known educationist, said once the committee has completed its task, it would then send a report on the findings to the Education Ministry.

The committee’s interim report is expected to be ready by the end of this month.

The government has come under fire in recent weeks after prominent historian Ranjit Singh Malhi criticised the latest edition of secondary school history textbooks for being biased and inaccurate.

Ranjit has said the textbooks, for use in Form 1 to Form 5, were Malay and Islam-centric and had omitted key facts relevant to nation-building while including factual distortions and exaggerations.

This is not the first time controversy over the history textbooks erupted as researchers have pointed out the same 10 years ago.

Tan told The Malaysian Insight that the committee, comprising Malay, Chinese and Indian representatives, aims to correct the factual mistakes in the secondary school history books.

“We have online meetings with the members, and they are each assigned a textbook from Form 1 to Form 5 to scrutinise,” he said.

“They are given two weeks to analyse the entire book for any content that is not right.”

He said the committee sees history from a national perspective.

Tan, who is also the deputy chairman of Chinese education umbrella body Dong Zong, said the committee is of the view that history must be accurate and based on facts.

He said the chapters on the nation’s transformation from Malaya to Malaysia and the contributions of all races must be a balanced depiction of historic events.

“There are some contents that need to be revised. Right now, emphasis has been given to the contributions of one racial group while others have been toned down. Yap Ah Loy (founder of Kuala Lumpur) is a good example,” he said.

At the same time, people have to know about the history of Sabah, Sarawak and other ethnic minorities and their contributions, he said.

He said certain parts of world history, such as the Indus civilisation and the Yellow River, which are known as the cradles of civilisation, have been watered down in the current textbooks.

“We are worried that our worldview will be shallow after secondary education, and all we know is Malay and Muslim history,” he said.

Tan said it takes strong political will to address the problem.

“The textbooks are based on policies, in addition to the personal opinions of scholars from the Education Ministry committee who determine the curriculum,” he said.

“Therefore, it is necessary to make sure that Malaysia’s profile as a multiracial country is accurately depicted.”

Having a shallow view

Tan said the ministry’s curriculum committee should comprise members of different racial and religious backgrounds to ensure that all races and religious groups are well represented and their history finds its way to the book.

“History textbooks are very important as it can shape the views of the next generation,” he said.

“If we are constantly revising it due to political reasons and cannot objectively depict true events, then the next generation will be prejudiced towards others and have a shallow view.

“This will negatively impact the country’s harmony.”

History researcher Tang Ah Chai found that the contents of the textbooks were altered every time a new edition was released.

“Actually, textbooks are revised after a certain interval. The new version of textbooks released this year for Form 1 to Form 5 also have some revised contents. This problem has persisted for a long time,” he said.

He said the aforesaid issues would be raised in the independent committee’s report to the Education Ministry.

Tang said the interim report is expected to be released on April 30.

A second round of meetings will be held next month where everyone will share their findings.

Ranjit has previously pointed out that most of the textbook authors were Malay.

He said this meant that world and Malaysian history was presented from the perspective of one particular ethnic group. – April 28, 2021.