By Sulok Tawie | 11 September 2011
The Sun Daily
KUCHING (Sept 11, 2011): Sarawak Teachers’ Union president William Ghani Bina said today that any revision of the school’s history textbook must be to correct the one-sided history on the formation of Malaysia.
“It is important that the new history textbook highlight the correct version of the formation of Malaysia,” he said when commenting on a statement by Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin that the history syllabus for schools was to be revised following a disclosure of new findings.
Ghani noted that the formation of Malaysia had not been put into the right perspective as it did not indicate clearly how Malaysia was formed.
“We agree on the history syllabus to be revised, and this must include how the country was formed in 1963,” he said.
“The present history about Malaysia is one-sided. It is only about Tanah Melayu, but Sarawak and Sabah are omitted and how Malaysia came into being was not properly explained,” he said.
Ghani insisted that without Sarawak and Sabah and also Singapore, Malaysia would never have existed, although Singapore pulled out in 1965.
“Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore helped to form Malaysia at that time, not just the Malay states as suggested in the history syllabus,” he said.
“It is important to highlight that Sarawak and Sabah never joined the Federation of Malaysia as claimed in the history textbook, and we want this to be highlighted in the new syllabus,” he added.
He said the country’s history cannot be one-sided.
He also said there is a need to explain Malaysia Day which falls on Sept 16.
“It is on this day that the Federation of Malaysia was officially formed by Malaya, Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore,” he added.
He noted that they formed the federation as equal partners.
“Sarawak and Sabah did not join as states, but as equal partners to Malaya and Singapore,” he said.
#1 by k1980 on Monday, 12 September 2011 - 2:42 pm
the mamak and a certain professor keling claim that malaya had never been colonised.
It seems our warriors were so fierce that the portuguese, dutch, brits and nipponese all ran away without setting foot on malayan soil. And James Brooke was just a servant boy of the brunei sultan whom the latter loved so much that he gave 95% of brunei to him which then became sarawak.
So why is merdeka celebrated without fail on 31 august year in and year out? Independence from who? The martians?
#2 by cemerlang on Monday, 12 September 2011 - 4:39 pm
East Malaysia was colonized twice. One under the Brunei sultanate and two under the British. Malacca was colonized under the Malay sultanate, then the Portuguese, then the Dutch and now. Life is like a book. Each day is a new page. May your book be a bestseller with adventures to tell, lessons to learn and tales of good deeds to remember.
#3 by asia on Monday, 12 September 2011 - 4:43 pm
In the history written
People in west originally were Buddhists and Hindu because of war …che…..cr…..
#4 by Bigjoe on Monday, 12 September 2011 - 5:14 pm
How pathetic is for East Malaysian to simply march to the drumbeat of UMNO/BN. Its time the stop their way of this mode of jumping on UMNO/BN wagon or dancing to their tunes with the hope to grab a share of the spoils and music.
They must make to their own beat, tell it like it is and take their future in their hand.
#5 by boh-liao on Monday, 12 September 2011 - 5:28 pm
Only now Sabahans n Sarawakians woke up n realised dat they hv been sodomized by UmnoB Malays fr Malaya since 1965, duped 2 celebrate 31.8 rather than 16.9, d real date
Now Sabah n Sarawak r colonies of Malaya n exploited by UmnoB/BNputras, so sad lor
Malaya, Sabah (North Borneo), n Sarawak NOT British colonies n part of d British Empire?
What a joke, MMK trying 2 spin his lies again, he forgot his father came fr India, another British colony