DEC 5 — Malayan Union.
Do you know what that means? If you don’t, find out for it’s your past. Know your history!
This is when generations of Malaysians switch off, they just do. They live in the present, and they want to know what the present is doing for them, and they — without guilt or shame — dare to dream of the future. They hear too much about the other kids elsewhere too soon, and their screens are not limited to state-controlled TV anymore. Astro may inundate them, but no one controls them anymore. The kids are getting liberated, and parents are oblivious about it.
They may have heard of the past, but these days story books are for those who can’t afford Kindle.
The kids are caught up with the present and worried about the future, the past is a bunch of unknowns.
Which is why the past literally haunts us here in Malaysia with a sense of irony. It’s not about Malayan Union anymore, for if it mattered it would have been on Playstation 4.
Where is my candi?
Let’s talk about the major preoccupations currently here in this country. Let’s not have our ideologies in a twist before we begin.
A candi here, a candi there and then an excavator. THE party assembly in massive halls up the road from the area with massive numbers of sex workers. An old man disassociating himself from the company he commandeered to build — for a short while — the world’s tallest building in the last millennium. A lecturer slash writer slash potential slasher proponent of the ethnic sort presenting his vision to bring division. Girl from exclusive ladies school which rolled out both the PM and Opposition Leader’s wives never to return from her intended English education sojourn found again. No more a young lady, but at least not dead like the commie leader in his Bangkok bed.
This is when it is apparent Malaysians are a peculiarity.
As a nation loathe to read which what a demanding subject like history requires, its righteous citizens with casual intellectual indifference won’t let that inconsequential fact deter them from shouting from hilltop asylums about protecting history.
Which is why the rest of the population stay silent, and hope that even this will pass.
In truth, history has become a burden to bear rather than a window to us understanding our human follies and to rediscover humanity, indeed it has been the source to breed discord.
In Malaysia at least.
History and history +
Holding the past in the collective hearts and minds of the people has long been the preoccupation of most nation builders, for inherited memories have the vicious strength of being present accepted facts. Controlling memories means controlling nations.
But Malaysia is caught between objective history that those bemoaning its shrouding being up in arms about and the taught history that those in power need everyone to abide to so that their grip is defended by the very people under the cosh.
With an unengaging mainstream media and dismissive government apparatus, the discourses are reduced to sound-bites.
No one challenges the perceived truth so it gets a free walk to the home plate.
The differences over cultural history
There are a slew of Indian Malaysians upset over the destruction of the remaining ruins of Lembah Bujang in Kedah, for property development. There is a sense a community property has been encroached upon.
The Islamic right wing has surprisingly come out in favour of protecting the heritage spot, but have unsurprisingly asserted that the ruins were not all that Hindu.
Was it Indian? Probably not. Was it Malay, most definitely yes.
As Farish Noor put it, these ancient Hindu temples are part of the Malay heritage. But saying it is part of Malay heritage, as Isma have, does not justify them trying to water down the period Hinduism and Buddhism reigned in Malaya especially.
Arguing it is the responsibility of ethnic Indians to care for the candis, is as futile as reducing the non-Islamic elements at these ruins in order to defend the long standing relationship Malaysia has with Muslim neighbours.
The great truth
Is that young people want history to augment their lives, not lead them to bitter episodes.
They are less concerned about the past and more concerned about their personal futures. History for those born in the electronic age is linear.
They may not know history and its vagaries, but they have a strong sense of “when they are being used.”
Which is why focussing on historical truths for distribution will always be trumped by a call for openness from a larger online community.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
