Making It Mandatory To Pass History ....

Recently, our DPM cum Minister of Education announced that it would be mandatory for those who sit for SPM to pass History. This would be implemented in three (3) years from now ....

I could not but totally agree with this proposal ... Well, what is good & make sense would still make sense to me!!! At least this time around ...

It does not matter to me on the notion that History is only recorded/written by the "victorious side" and would be moulded in accordance with the "victorious author"... We could see a lot of such examples of how history is being "recreated" with the defeat of Japan & Germany in World War II and how the State of Israel suddenly appeared in the World History in 1948!!!

In his column in NST @ 26 October 2010 at page 17, Syed Nadzri applauded the Government's decision and I found the article written by him is very interesting and sensible.

He states that " ... While historical facts are sacred, the perspectives can be very subjective. The authors and textbooks will, therefore, be crucial to determine what kind of lessons the students get." This is mainly due to the reason being history provides that avenue for various interpretations and analyses of events.

I consider myself as lucky in the sense that I have the privy of reading books on History (of Malaysia) from various sources - not only the mainstream school text books .... Therefore, I do have my own perception and interpretation on Malaysian History.

The other factor which led to my being looking at History "differently" is of course the influence by my Secondary History teacher, Mr. Dass. He taught and made History interesting and alive - literally that is - one day he would be a Roman Emperor and the next day all of us would be fighting the lion in the Coliseum during the height of the Roman Empire.

The other individual who had a great impact is Prof. Dr. Mohammad Redzuan Othman, currently the Dean of Faculty of Art & Social Sciences, University of Malaya. He actually taught me History when I was taking my STPM at a private Tuition Center called "Institut Sofar" in Ipoh way back in the 80s. He was a lecturer of History at UM then and he was teaching at Institut Sofar as part of his "social & ibadah" obligation, I believe ....

"Cik Gu/Ustaz Redzuan" as we used to call him then taught us history from a different angle. He always gave us Articles from 'History Journals" published locally and overseas to broaden our perspective & interpretation on History ...

The immediate result? By then I became an "incorrigible" critics of the local mainstream History.... and the excellent result in History Papers!!! He he

Many thanks to both of them - Mr. Dass & Prof. Dr. Mohammad Redzuan Othman ... also many thanks to our DPM for the right & timely decision.