New Strait Times Online
2009/05/24
HOW are communists presented in our school history textbooks?
To say nothing is taught about them would be wrong, but it certainly seems to be what detractors call "victor's history".
In Form Three, one whole chapter is dedicated to them, and is labelled as "The Threat of the Malayan Communist Party and the Emergency".
Chapter Two touches on the political vacuum created by the retreat of the Japanese, in which the MPAJA (Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army) took over towns and important districts, police stations and government administration offices, imposed heavy taxes on villagers, were violent, and kidnapped and tortured anyone thought to have co-operated with the Japanese.
Chapter Three goes to tell how communism came into the country, how the communist method used violence and its objective to establish the Malayan Communist Republic .
The MCP worked with the British to fight the Japanese, who trained them in guerilla warfare.
After the war, the MCP turned its attentions on the British, and became illegal in July 23, 1948.
In short, the textbook tells of the Emergency and the British's struggle to fight the communists.
In the Form Five textbook, the communists are said to be one of the factors that drove nationalism by raising anti-colonialist feelings. This is explained in one paragraph, which states that in the 14 days between the retreat of the Japanese and the return of the British, the MCP governed cruelly and went on a rampage, killing anyone they thought was a Japanese sympathiser.
The story of the MCP from their perspective and the inadvertent role they played in pushing the British into giving us independence is not told.
Small wonder then that young, IT-savvy Malaysians, are turning to the blogs to discover the complete truth.
Whether they find the truth, no one knows.
For, what is the truth? It would be nice to learn that in schools.
No comments:
Post a Comment