History lesson via song

http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html

Arms costing more than an arm and a leg!

When Soong and Anne dropped in at my home back in November 2010, his parting line was, "I am not sure I'll be able to make for your Deepavali function next year, as my book is due to be out and it is going to be explosive (?pun intended). I don't know whether I'll be inside or out!" Listen to this podcast and you will know why.


There are many intelligent people around in Malaysia. Just that they all stay away from the mainstream and are happy doing their own thing, without raising an eyelid or a hand to change the slow evolution of things around them. Others take the easy way out by emigrating. Those who stay will be stirred when their piece of the Malaysian pie shrinks and are restricted from satisfying their ever unquenchable thirst for the Money God!

History or his-story?

Dr Hsu Dar Ren is a medical doctor and blogs 

on socio-economic issues;  believes that a fair

and equitable society  with good governance

is the key to the future of this country

December 22, 2010

DEC 22 — Shih Huang Ti, the emperor of Qin who united the warring factions of China over 2,000 years ago, was a shrewd leader. He wanted to live forever, and thus sent Xu Fu and 100 young boys and 100 young girls in search of the elixir that will give him eternal life.D

Xu Fu was a smart person. He sailed with the boys and girls to a group of Islands then called Tong Yin, which we now know by the name of Japan, and never returned.

Many Chinese believe that the Japanese might be the descendants of these groups of young boys and girls. Of course, I am no expert and I will leave this to archaeologists and anthropologists to argue it out.

What is certain is that Xu Fu’s grave is in Japan, and many of those young boys and girls and their descendents must have cross-married with the locals, and there is definitely a relation in term of genetics between the Chinese people and the Japanese.

Shih Huang Ti’s dream of getting the elixir remained just a dream. We know that everyone dies and there is no exception. So ultimately Shih Huang Ti must have realised this fact of life too.

So instead, he tried to consolidate his family’s hold on power, as he knew that his son and grandsons, like many of the second and third generations of aristocrats before, would not be as good or as “great” as himself.

He also started a project never before seen in human history at that time. He drafted millions of people, young and old, men and women alike to build a wall that stretched thousands of miles across the northern border of his empire.

That wall is reportedly the only man-made structure that is visible from space. We know it by the name of Wan Li Chang Zeng, or simply in English, The Great Wall (of China).

Hundreds of thousands died building this. This wall served to protect China from the barbarians up north, and so he thought it would help to protect his family’s reign.

Another worry was the intelligentsia. These were people who always criticised him. So how to make people obedient and loyal to him absolutely? He thought hard on this question being the clever man that he was.

What better way of trying to perpetuate his dynasty but to make all the people obedient fools? In those days, books were written on bamboo plates, and to gain knowledge was no simple feat.

So there were not many educated people. But even though this group was small, their influence was great. The peasants would look up to these educated people as guiding lights, and their views, through word of mouth carried by these peasants and simple folks, would travel fast throughout the country — even though there were no phone lines and no Internet.

Shih Huang Ti thought that if he could make all these intelligentsia disappear, there would be no more opponents to his rule or his dream of a perpetual dynasty for his descendants.

So began a mammoth task of rounding up these intelligentsia, especially those whose views were considered anti-government. He also ordered that certain books be confiscated and burned. Those books which in his mind would be able to influence people to think and question his authority and his reign.

This is one of the black marks on his reign, even though he was the one who unified China and unified Chinese writing. The latter was a feat that was of utmost importance, because despite the different dialects being spoken all over China, the unified Chinese writing served as a common identification factor for the people of China. It too had helped to nurture a homogenous culture.

The attempt to bury the intelligentsia and burn books was part of an attempt to rewrite history to suit Shih Huang Ti’s interest. We all know that he failed and failed miserably, for not many years after his death, his dynasty came tumbling down, and the Qin Dynasty was one of the shortest dynastic reigns in the history of China (221 BC to 206 BC).

For those who are more philosophical, this is perhaps a case of “Man proposes, God disposes” — and in this simple saying, there is so much wisdom for the present politicians to learn from.

Any attempt to try to hide the truth or any attempt to use unscrupulous methods to perpetuate one’s reign will fail miserably in the end.

In modern times, Adolf Hitler employed similar tactics in trying to consolidate his power. His propaganda machinery totally disregarded facts.

The person in charge of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, famously said that, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Of course, the Third Reich failed and failed miserably, even though the failure had a lot to do with Hitler’s delusion of grandeur. But I suspect even Hitler had started believing the story painted by Goebbels and thus made many military as well as administrative blunders based on the false propaganda, and these blunders cumulatively weakened the resources of Germany so much that Reich’s fate was doomed.

What I am trying to say is that over the period of human history, many attempts had been made to rewrite history or to give out misinformation. Most of these attempts failed.

In Communist China, in the 50s and 60s, the failed Great Leap Forward was initially touted as a great economic success, and the Cultural Revolution a great egalitarian experiment. The Gang of Four, as we call them now, were described as the great compatriots to the Great Leader.

But with the passing of Mao Zedong and the arrest of the Gang of Four, the truth inevitably was uncovered and many victims of that egalitarian experiment, like Deng Xiao Peng, were given back their rightful places in history.

Artificial re-writing of history will not last long. It may last only as long as the ruler who patronised such writings, but as some wise person has so aptly pointed out, without peer review, history is only a story that will be rebutted and rewritten and would not be accepted as the true recording of actual events.

Those who never learn from history and try to write his-story instead are bound to repeat the mistakes!

Movie with a twist!

[First published December 21st, 2010, a full year before the alleged end of the world, Armageddon] 

One Sunday evening, my other half had a sudden urge to watch a Tamil movie. (God knows why!). After browsing the papers, we zeroed on a Tamil movie which sounded interesting. Interesting because it starred Suriya (the current top Tamil actor), Vivek Oberoi (the ever smiling John Denver-hairstyled Hindi actor who was Aishwarya Rai's one time beau) and believe it or not Shatrughan Sinha (the Bihari Hindi actor of the 70s who had carved a career in politics - what was he doing in a Tamil movie anyway?)

In a flash, we got ready, and before long we were at the ticket counter of one of the oldest theatres in Kuala Lumpur (Coliseum) buying ticket. Coliseum was about to be demolished last year before timely interventions by the Heritage societies and the ministry. They struck a deal with the owners, whereby, it will be preserved together with the colonial type restaurant and hotel as a national heritage. In fact, the cinema gives away free tickets once a month on the 4th Friday afternoon of the month to view locally produced films. The restaurant, on the other hand, still serves good old British favourites like 'Shepard's pie' in an ambience set in the pre-colonial interior decorations and even the waiters were probably born before Merdeka.

The ticket counter guy (a foreigner) was telling that the show that we were about to watch was the last screening, and he highly recommended the movie - Ratha Charitharam.
As an afterthought, after seeing the poster of the movie upon paying for the tickets, we thought we had made a bad choice as the poster boasted of violence and revenge, which was definitely not our cup of tea! And wifey said, "Should have bought the tickets for the other movie screened there -'Chikku Bukku'. What the heck, we were there just to pass the time. We can always sleep through the film if it was found to be boring!

So we went in, armed with kuaci (dried melon seeds) and pistachios. After a few trailers, (the trailers were only two Rajnikanth music videos, not a single ad! Business must be bad, the target audience was not the affluent willing-to-part-with-money type!, .they started screening the opening credits of the movie 'Chikku Bukku'. I thought it was the promotion of their next screening, but hey! - the trailer went on and on... They have decided to screen the other movie! My wife's prayer got answered? The usher at theatre could not put forward a sensible reply. And nobody else in the thin crowd of the audience seems to mind, so we just watched.

This is the second time such an incident had happened to me. The first one was in 1988 in Kota Bharu (KB), a small town in the north-eastern state of Peninsular Malaysia of Kelantan. Watching a movie in KB was an experience entirely different to what we are used to. For a start, in the 80s, hit English language movies rarely hit the shores of Kelantan. If ever any English language movies were to creep through, it would usually be a B-grade one and would last no more than a day. So, if we were to catch it in the screening times in the papers, we better watch it on the same day for tomorrow may be too late! So, when TFLG (my weird friend who has no other friends except me) and I saw the newspaper announcement of 'The Untouchables' starring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Robert DeNiro being screened in KB, we were excited! It was a Friday, around noon when we saw it. Friday, in Kelantan, was the weekend as Thursday is a half-working day and Friday is off-day. After burning the candles at both ends for the term examinations, we decided to reward ourselves by feasting on Arumugam's banana leaf rice with his mouth drooling (even as I type) varuval chicken, followed by a movie later on.

Arumugam's Malindo Indian Curry House in Jalan Pengkalan Chepa was one of the few Indian restaurants in KB. In my opinion, he served the best South Indian food cooked complete with all the necessary spices without taking any shortcuts. Another reason I go there is for his warm hospitality and to support an honest man in his bit to feed his young family. As university students, of course, we got special treatment!
In KB, during the time of Friday prayers (salat Jumaat), all businesses come to a standstill (except non-Moslem ones). Hence, after lunch, we had to wait till 3pm before the screenings commenced.
Now, a few formalities and ground rules have to know before you start watching. For your information, they had sanctioned one half of the hall for men and the other for ladies. You are required to rise and stand at attention at the beginning of the movie when the state anthem is played, and the Sultan of Kelantan's portrait will be screened simultaneously. The hall lights will not be wholly switched off. Dim lights will accompany the audience by the side of the hall throughout the show. And do not be surprised if someone rudely flashes a torchlight at the middle of the show to ask for identifications or wedding certificate, especially if you are sitting with a female companion. It could be the moral police or PM (not Prime Minister but pencegah maksiat!))

So, after seeing the poster, we bought our tickets and went in. Just like what happened 22 years later, the supposed trailer never ended, and we ended up watching an Italian R-rated, butchered by censors, B-grade (maybe C) movie made in the spoof of the Hollywood blockbuster 'Blue Lagoon' called 'Blue Island'. And when we came out, that earlier poster had been changed to 'Blue Island'!


Goodbye, 2010! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Going to hang my running boots, rest my fingers, get away from it all and re-emerge next year from Down Under!

Factual errors in History books

Monday December 20, 2010 (The Star)
AS an advocate of 1Malaysia which stresses national unity and ethnic harmony, I view with concern the substantially lopsided and biased content of our current Form 1-5 History textbooks.
To make matters worse, there are more than 10 factual errors and contradictions in our current Form 1-5 History textbooks.
The Education Ministry should immediately appoint a multi-ethnic Advisory Panel to ensure students are learning Malaysian and World History that is generally objective, well-balanced and wholly accurate.
The trend of “rewriting” Malaysian history started in 1996 with the formation of the Jawatankuasa Penerbitan Buku Teks Sejarah Tingkatan 1 and Tingkatan 2.
Its members (more than 15 for each committee), including the writers and consulting experts of the textbooks, were all drawn from one ethnic group.
Indeed, all 17 authors of our current Form 1-5 History textbooks are drawn from one ethnic group.
Hence, it is not surprising that our students are now primarily learning History as viewed through the lens of one ethnic group.
This does not augur well for the creation of a truly united and prosperous 1Malaysia.
Our current History textbooks are biased in the sense that they downplay the roles of the non-Malays in the development of our nation and its independence.
As an example, the previous textbooks used to adequately mention the contribution of the Chinese and the Indians in the development of the tin mining and rubber industries.
Now it is given scant attention.
There is also lopsided emphasis on Islamic Civilisation.
I personally counted that about 39% of the content of the current Form Four History textbook (compared to 15% in the earlier textbook) deals with Islamic Civilisation.
Hence, the recent statement by the new Education director-general that the weight of the Islamic Civilisation in the current Form Four History textbook is the same as the earlier textbook is inaccurate and misleading.
He must have been misinformed by his officials.
Interestingly, the current textbook has reduced more than 25% the amount of text related to Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism as compared to the earlier textbook.
Our History textbooks are also biased because they do not tell the whole truth.
For example, why can’t we state categorically that the founder of Malacca (Parameswara) was a Hindu prince from Palembang who died a Hindu.
We must be proud of our multi-religious and multi-cultural heritage.
The earlier Malaysian History textbooks do mention the role of Yap Ah Loy (Kapitan China of Kuala Lumpur from 1868 to 1885) in developing Kuala Lumpur.
The current Form 2 History textbook has just one sentence (not even in the main text) on Yap Ah Loy: Yap Ah Loy antara orang yang bertanggungjwab membangunkan Kuala Lumpur (Yap Ah Loy is one of the people responsible for developing Kuala Lumpur).
As for Gurchan Singh, his wartime exploits were contained in a textbook,Heroes of Malaya, which was widely used in Malayan schools in the 1950s.
Indeed, our first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, was among those who grieved at Gurchan’s death in 1965 and personally offered condolences to his family.
The Education Ministry should also review the current teaching of History in schools.
History is an interesting subject which has been made uninteresting by teachers.
Most students have a natural curiosity about the past and how the present came to be.
Unfortunately, many teachers adhere religiously to the lecture and note-taking method of teaching History.
Worse still, very few teachers ask higher-order questions.
This is the major reason why most students view History as a boring subject.
In short, what is boring is not History per se but the way History is being taught.
The teaching and learning of History should be geared towards enhancing deep learning, critical thinking, information literacy and presentation skills of our students and not merely just for memorisation and to pass exams.
History should be taught in a lively and interesting manner using various instructional strategies (such as discussions, debates, group presentations, document studies and video clips) and not be limited to the traditional lecture method.
Students should not be mere spectators in the teaching and learning process; active learning should be promoted.
In our quest to create 1Malaysia, all of us have a moral duty of ensuring that our students study History that is not only accurate but generally objective and well-balanced.
Let us all work towards creating a truly united, harmonious and prosperous Malaysia wherein every ethnic group is treated equitably under the Malaysian sun.

DR RANJIT SINGH MALHI,
Kuala Lumpur.

Malakoff 2010, 12km

Another run.... This time at Bukit Kiara around the bourgeois neighbourhood of Bukit Bandaraya in Damansara through the Malakoff 12 km run. Three other running 'kakis' joined the early morning rush (Raj, Jagjit and Ravi). Malaysians seem to be improving on their punctuality, Right smack at 7am (as scheduled), the women runners (12km) were flagged off and the man at 7.10am. This run is known for its gruelling hilly terrain as the undulating course cut through 3 hills and troughs. The organization was good with proper flagging off and ample water stations.

The event was an easy Sunday morning outing for those who do not indulge in too many Saturday night late activities. In fact, that is why the 4 jokers (me and fellow runners) joined the bandwagon. All dressed and nowhere to go on Saturday nights, so run instead.

A week before the event, I was already nursing a calf muscle sprain. After resting for a week, I thought it would just miraculously fly away. Unfortunately, it showed its ugly head just 2 km into the race. Doing some self taught stunts again, managed to pull through the race in an unofficial time of 1h13m. The other partners in crime also did well - Raj 1h13m, Jagjit 1h8m, Ravi 1h3m.

The good thing about Malakoff run is the breakfast that they serve afterwards. We were spoilt for choice. All the calories lost in running was instantaneously replaced. We had the choice of cereals, oranges, tau fu fa, mamak mee, chendol and others.

Proudly wearing the finishers' medal, we are eagerly awaiting the official results.....  









CATEGORY GENDER       OVERALL    BIB NO    FULL NAME                             SPLIT (4.3KM) SPLIT (8.8KM) GUNTime ChipTime
        67                519              592          1212       ASOKAN SHAMUGANATHAN    27:05.8    57:01.5      1:13:40.5       1:13:11.

History syllabus furthering political interests... by Lim Teck Ghee

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2010

History syllabus furthering political interests

by Lim Teck Ghee
Malaysiakini, Dec 16, 2010, 3:32pm

A few days ago, two senior academicians involved in the writing of history textbooks emerged from the shadows, saying that the history textbooks in the country are biased and littered with errors. 

According to one of them, Dr Ranjit Singh Malhi, "secondary (school) textbooks have been used to promote political interests". 

The other concerned author, Ng How Kuen, expressed the fear that making history a compulsory pass subject in Sijil Perlajaran Malaysia (SPM) would mean that students would have to subscribe to the official version of events or risk failing the entire examination.

It is said that history is written by the victors, but it is also true that we get the history we deserve. The disclosure that the teaching of history in schools has been skewed and has a political agenda - besides suffering from distortions and errors - is not the first time this issue has been brought to public attention.Earlier attempts to highlight the issue of what constitutes the true history of Malaysia and what is being passed off as officially-sanctioned history in the schooling and larger public system, such as the BTN courses, may have begun with a bang - but they have all ended with a whimper.

Forcefeeding the 'four diseases'

If we go by previous experience we can expect the following responses:

• Bureaucratic foot-dragging and feigned ignorance on the issue;

• Justification and cover-up of the existing history textbook and syllabus system and attempts to prevent any public discussion and reform;

• Use of the mask of impartiality and superior knowledge to deflect criticism;

• Attacks on the credibility of whistleblowers; and

• Deafening silence from key stakeholders, including the academic community, political parties and professional organisations.

Why is the great majority of our Malaysian public not concerned about the version of history that is being propagated in the schools?
 

Why do the people close their eyes and their minds to the distorted history that is being taught to their children and grandchildren? 

Do they not realise the consequences of the victory of a history that is radically different from the history that they themselves learnt when they were in school not so long ago? Was the history that they studied so wrong that it needs to be substantially changed in emphasis, content and scope?

Why are they silent on the development of a propagandistic and truncated history that is increasingly infiltrated by the forces of Islamisation and crass nationalism, and where the four major diseases that afflict BN - delusion, amnesia, inertia and arrogance - are prominently evident and force-fed to the young minds of the country?

The answers are complex, but they essentially boil down to apathy and lack of concern, especially among the educated and elite groups of our society on these important issues that are crucial to our future as a rational and thinking society. 

Underscoring this 'tidak apa' attitude is the dominant factor of self-interest and self-preservation.

Those involved with writing history text books and who are in the know about the deplorable and compromised standards of their peer group want to protect their lucrative side-employment.

Others, such as academicians or teachers of the subject in the schools, do not dare to speak out for fear of being labelled as 'anti-national', or as in the case of those in the public universities, for fear of running foul of the Universities and Universities Colleges Act, which will be selectively enforced on them should they write or speak publicly on issues that are out of line with the official position.

Academics BN sycophants

It is no coincidence that academicians and opinion writers who are regularly trotted out in the mainstream media are those who seek to justify or reinforce the current status quo. These sycophants have not only academic or intellectual immunity but they also enjoy perks akin to those enjoyed by the business cronies of the BN.

If there is any reaction from the academic community to the two whistleblowers, we can expect their comments to come from those who will toe and reinforce the official position and circumvent from the main issue of the Islamisation and politicisation of the Malaysian history school syllabus. 

Dissenters, on the other hand, have to face the possibility of lost or delayed promotions and other forms of punishment not easily discernible to the public eye.

"Shut up, mind your own business" and cari makan (even though this may be through rent-seeking, queue-jumping, plagiarism and other unethical practices) have been the credo of the great majority of the professional elite in Malaysia. It is a culture that has served them well personally, but at what cost to the nation?

Malaysian history must be based on facts and the scrupulous depiction of historical reality. The writing of textbooks should not be left to those who regard it as a business or their political agenda and are prepared to bend the truth so that it meets with the vision of an Islamic and Umno-dominant Malaysia.

Unless we are prepared to fight for a scholarly, reliable and representative history, we will end up with a future - as well as a past - that reflects the dominant ethnic and religious culture and community, and marginalises or erases the contributions of other cultures and communities.

Dr Lim Teck Ghee is director of the Centre for Policy Initiatives.