Welding 1Malaysia via history

I REFER to the letter from Dr Ranjit Singh, “Adopt inclusive approach in history” (The Star, Oct 2), commenting on the secondary school history textbooks in Malaysia and the heavy Malay-Islamic bias that he saw in these books. His opinion is not far-fetched because I too have seen a Form Four textbook on world history. Looking at the contents page, I saw so many chapters on the Islamic past that I became curious about what was inside. It did not look like world history to me. It looked more like a history book written for the purpose of satisfying the racial and religious politics in the country.

Just a few days ago, I heard over the radio a discussion about Malaysian history. The topic was the history of the Emergency and the academics were saying that the official version does not give a fair view of what the various races went through during the difficult years of the communist insurgency.