KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 — The Education Ministry must explain why there is little to no mention of the formation of Malaysia in official history textbooks used by Chinese national-type primary schools, a DAP lawmaker said today, claiming that it implies that Sabah and Sarawak are inconsequential .
Sibu MP Oscar Ling Chai Yew claimed that there is no mention whatsoever of Malaysia’s formation in the country’s historical timeline in the Primary 4 textbook, while the only mention of Malaysia’s formation in the Primary 5 textbook was one paragraph stating that Sabah and Sarawak adopted Bahasa Malaysia as the official language.
“The Primary 4 textbooks make no mention of the formation of Malaysia in 1963. It is as if independence only happened in 1957,” he said at a news conference in the Parliament lobby, referring to Malaya’s independence from British rule.
“For children in Sabah and Sarawak, this is very confusing. The history of Sabah and Sarawak are as important as Malaya, and should account for at least one-third of the content (of the textbooks).
“Otherwise, not only are we sidelined in terms of infrastructure but also in our culture and our history,” Ling added.
Earlier during Question Time, Deputy Education Minister P. Kamalanathan told Parliament that Putrajaya is in no way sidelining Sabah and Sarawak, stressing that the formation of Malaysia could be made an “important topic” in textbooks for higher classes and not necessarily in the existing curriculum.
Two years ago, the ministry announced that it will introduce history as a subject for primary schools from Standards 4 through 6, starting in 2014.
Pointing to the trend set in the textbooks used since last year, Ling today claimed that he does not see any seriousness on the part of the Education Ministry to include the topic of Malaysia’s formation in the Primary 6 textbooks that will have their first run next year.
“The Primary 6 history textbooks are not out yet, so we don’t know if Malaysia’s formation will be included. If it is not, then our children will not learn anything about the formation of Malaysia in primary school,” he said.
East Malaysians have long complained of being sidelined by the central administration, which they have accused of being overtly Malaya-centric by using the peninsula’s date of independence from British rule on August 31, 1957 as the official date for Malaysia’s independence.
The country, however, was only formed on September 16, 1963 when Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore signed the Malaysia agreement as equal partners in the federation.
