MANY history buffs in Sarawak must have been wondering what the fuss was all about. Last month, the Deputy Prime Minister announced the government’s intention to make History an exam-passing school subject at Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) level beginning in 2013.
“The main purpose of the change is to create a deeper understanding of the country’s history,” the Deputy Minister of Education explained in Parliament this week.
We are told that a team of experts will be roped in to review the contents of textbooks in use for so many years now. Hopefully, they will come up with a method of teaching the subject that is enjoyable to both teacher and class.
Until that elucidation by the Deputy Education Minister, the requirement seemed unnecessarily harsh.
If Sarawak’s history forms part of the scheme of things, however, then the formation of the committee is worth supporting.
A place and space for Sarawak in the textbooks
It’s obvious that the modern history of Malaysia has a wider coverage including the events leading up to the formation of the new federation and the past 47 years of its existence, as well as the earlier history, respectively, of Sabah, Sarawak, and their connections with Brunei from the 15th to the 20th century.
The history of each of the states of Malaya — Federated, Unfederated, and the Straits Settlements — is well documented. Include Sarawak and Sabah, and the whole panorama will make a pretty picture.
History is such a vast subject! It demands a lot of mental energy to remember and memorise names of places and dates. This may be one of the reasons why many young people find History boring. It belongs to the past, when the future is much more important and more challenging.
Its relevance today
To the history enthusiast, however, this is a fascinating subject: to be able to see a glimpse of the past through written records and word of mouth and to learn from the deeds of our forefathers, mistakes included, as well as to guess what the near future may possibly be like, based on the patterns or trends of contemporary events. Against the immediate surroundings and the global background, one can more or less visualise what life may be like for Malaysians by 2020.
To the economist, by then the average income of an individual Malaysian will be RM4,000 per month — a sum which doesn’t mean much in itself if the ringgit continues to lose purchasing power! To the amateur chronicler, however, this seems a purely theoretical prediction. Considering the present socioeconomic conditions of many natives, it seems impossible that they will ever enjoy that amount of monthly income. It is possible to reach the magic figure if you divide the total monthly income of the richest among the Penans, for instance, by 10,000 or so of the community. For statistical purposes …
Historians will record all the statistics for future students to analyse. They may possibly learn some lesson: how not to assume too much, or read too much into statistics.
In two years’ time we will reach our half-century. No doubt the golden jubilee will be celebrated in a grand style. Fifty years hence, historians will write about the previous period, re-evaluate it, and possibly rewrite it.
Meanwhile, let’s enlarge the canvas and supply additional information to this history-writing committee, preferably from written sources, as evidence that Sarawak has a rich history of its own.
For the past 47 years, many events of historical importance — political, social and economic — have taken place in Sarawak. Take just a few: the first local government elections; appointment of first Chief Minister Stephen Kalong Ningkan; formation of Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963; the Confrontation; Land Bills crisis in 1965; formation of the first Coalition Government in 1970; the Ming Court affair … to name some famous and not so famous highlights of the first two decades of Merdeka for Sarawak.
There is a lot of information on the history of the state before Malaysia from 1839 to 1963, but there is a dearth of evidence on how we were governed under the Brunei suzerainty going back several centuries.
Perhaps, we should consider looking for more written information from sources in Brunei or even China and India, the two countries that had so much influence on the way of life of the people in this part of the world.
Events for the record
History can be created. Certain recent happenings in the country, now noted by the chroniclers, of a place or an organisation may become part of the History subject.
The recent appointment of Stephen Mundaw as the first Dayak Iban brigadier-general in the Malaysian Army is certainly a notable item not only of the history of the army but also of Sarawak.
Sincere felicitations, General!
When the motion in the Dewan Negeri by the Bukit Assek assemblyman was discussed without it being formally moved and duly seconded, it was something new to the convention-bound public. The normal view is that any motion must be moved and seconded and then debated. The conclusion is either that the motion is rejected, or it is accepted and passed. May be there is a House rule to make such a common practice an exception.
Realising that we are living in an age of Malaysia Boleh, the historians may treat this event as part of the Hansard of the august House.
The boat tragedy in Ulu Anap is a part of the history of Kakus district. The indictment of the skipper of the boat before the release of the report on the investigations into the accident is a bit unusual. Isn’t it putting the cart before the horse?
The great logjam on the Baleh and the Rajang in October 2010 will become the history of the mighty Rajang and its basin. Who destroyed the forests? Who carved out the hillsides for logging roads? Who says Kapit has no roads? Whose log ponds eroded the riverbanks? How the rejected logs and debris all landed in such a deluge into the Baleh? All will be part of the history of a place and of the environment.
However, only after the release of the official report by the experts on the logjam, perhaps, can we apportion blame, to humans or gods, or to both.
The impoundment of the Bakun Dam is another subject for history books. One lesson to draw from this maybe the importance of extensive information campaigns to alert people downriver of the possibility of the drastic drop of water level in the river, which is their highway.
One would have thought that a Plan B, access roads to Kapit and the population centres further upriver, would have been built long before the impoundment. We are now being wise after the event. That’s part of the history of the Bakun Dam, and Bakun in turn is part of the history of Sarawak.
The Sarawak Gazette used to record day-to-day events in a column called ‘A Sarawak Diary’. It is still a source for researchers who want to avoid having to leaf through the yellowing pages of many old newspapers in the Archive. The Diary chronicled information gleaned from the newspapers, painstakingly assembled by Loh Chee Yin and Dunstan Lee Chee Liang.
Alas, this practice, too, is now history.