KOTA KINABALU: State Education Exco Datuk Masidi Manjun has suggested that contents of history textbooks used in schools be reviewed to include a more balanced representation of important events that took place in Sabah and Sarawak.
Masidi who is also Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, said it was important for the future generation to fully understand the history of the country, and this included the history of the two states which together with Malaya and Singapore formed the Federation of Malaysia.
“If I may summarize it, I’d say yes there is a need for the Ministry of Education to re-look at the contents of the subject of history but at the same time we Sabahans, through associations, should brush up our knowledge on our own history,” he said to reporters after officiating a seminar on ‘Sabah Prospect and Retrospect: The Aftermath of Colonial Rule’ here yesterday.
He was asked to comment on claims by certain quarters that the school syllabus on the country’s history offered very limited insight into Sabah’s past as it was more focused on discussing the history of Peninsular Malaysia.
“We need to look at this from two aspects; number one there is a need for us to probably restructure our history textbooks to provide more room for Sabah and Sarawak. The other thing is that we the parents need to give strong encouragement to our children to study the history of Sabah,” he said.
He however said the issue should not be left entirely to the Education Department. Instead all quarters, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), ethnic associations, historians and writer groups should play their role in educating young Sabahans about the history of their own state.
Sabahans, he stressed, must appreciate and learn their history so that they would be able to pass it down to the next generation to be studied and preserved.
“I think we don’t necessarily need to be a historian in order to learn history because history is something that we went through in our lives, so all of us in our own different context are historians. We all have experience, and history is experience. It’s important that we ourselves educate our children about our history.
“It’s about attitude, probably some people don’t even bother to learn their history. You’ll be surprised to find how many information you can find about Sabah just by going on-line. But how many people do you think take the trouble to go to the web even just once a day to read them? My point is, inculcate good reading habits and you’ll be surprised how much knowledge you can acquire,” he said further.
Masidi added it was unfortunate that most of Sabah’s historic buildings were damaged or totally destroyed during World War Two which made it difficult to gather historical artifacts or materials for reference.
However, he said there should be a continuous effort to preserve what was left and this was another thing where Sabahans could play an important role.
“We need to appreciate historical buildings. How valuable they are is immaterial, I think every building that is old has its own history. Whether they are relevant to our time is secondary. If we don’t appreciate history, we don’t appreciate our country, ourselves,” he opined.
On a related issue, he said the government at the moment appeared to need a longer time to evaluate what to do with the controversial plan to develop a piece of land next to the Atkinson Tower which is one of the few historic infrastructures that survived World War II.
From what he gathered, he said the public or at least most of them wanted the old wooden clock tower to be left as it is.
At the function, Masidi also launched a book entitled ‘The Making of Sabah 1865-1941: The Dynamics of the Indigenous Society’.
He said the seminar together with the launch of the book was hoped to serve as a reminder to Sabahans on the importance of knowing their own history and open up debate and discussion on the events that led to the birth of Sabah.