Sejarah... Compulsory Pass

Come 2013, a pass in History for SPM is a must. Else no SPM Certificate will be awarded. I think it's good for students to learn History. Gives a perspective of balance and there's nothing like reading into stories of the past to learn from the mistakes made. Children still learn well through stories.

But our history is boring. It's also skewed. You get the impression that they are trying to rewrite history. There seems to be an effort to conveniently forget certain parts and contributions. There is no real effort to point out the errors of the past. History books say one reason Birch was stabbed was because he interfered with the practice of slavery... and we imply that he deserves his death because of this too. That he should not have interfered with this form of human abuse... The people (especially the lower classes) would probably have had less to fear from and more freedom.

Kids today don't learn about the role of Yap Ah Loy in the building of Kuala Lumpur. We have a colonial past, that cannot be denied. The immigrants came. Coolies and estate workers they were... it took a heavy toll on them too! But colonialism also brought us progress. When the British left, they left behind a good administrative system. We built on what was left behind, supposedly into something better but we've compromised a lot today.

There seemed to be DNA studies about Hang Tuah and his friends and the recent discovery of Kota Gelanggi have all but not been divulged to the public... and some quarters claim that our Federal Constitution favours certain races over others. Principles of morality be damned... sometimes it feels like we've our own version of the Ku Klux Klan, only ours is not that of white supremacy but of another colour.

Anyway, if current trends are to persist, Ahmad Zahidi's claim that the 'neo-colonialism' supposedly happening to Penang cos it's under Lim Guan Eng's stewardship will also dot the history books in the future. Yet under his tenure in the last 2 years, Penang is thriving. Investments are coming in and even the Seberang Perai municipality went into the black after the red by the previous administration. What did DAP do in Penang to warrant such labelling? Penang has done better under DAP than BN... perhaps neo-colonialism is a good thing, then? That is the that sort of racist politics that we have in Malaysia... or perhaps they must have some pirates' bloodline for good measures??? Apparently Najib called Muhyiddin a Javanese, Shafie Apdal a Semporna lanun (pirate) and Hishamuddin a pirate. One should have a pirate lineage to head a country so that one has credibility to behave like a mafioso.. they too have their system of patronage (the skewed kind)??

Compulsory pass... sometimes it seems to me like the compulsory is just to make sure that every young 'un has to read so that they brain goes through one wash cycle. But this sort of wash usually don't wash well cos the kids are not dumb either... actions speak louder than words.