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Monday 25 October 2010

History subject must be passed was made compulsory in UMNO AGM.

Senator Dr. S.Ramakrishnan,

Muhyiddin Yassin the deputy prime minister who is also education minister, announced during his winding-up speech in UMNO AGM that history subject is now made compulsory in all secondary schools. Students have to pass the history subject along with Bahasa Malaysia to obtain the SPM certificate. This was in respond to a complaint by one UMNO delegate about the state of the younger generations' knowledge of history. It was previously made compulsory for students to take history as a subject in the secondary SPM examinations but Tan Sri Muhyiddin said starting 2013, it would be compulsory for students to pass the subject, along with Bahasa Malaysia.

UMNO’s history subject will include ketuanan Melayu, one sided social contract, Hindu prayer strings as dog leaches, pendatang, penumpang, si-botol, si-sepet racial slurs. Everybody knows UMNO history subject will polarize Malaysians even further apart. This impromptu decision by an education minister is unprecedented and irresponsible by any standard. But the Malaysian education minister made the decision off the scarf without any consultation with concerned educationists and stakeholders. It implies that the minister knows better what changes needed to make our younger generation accept the present reality and move forward as one nation competing with the other countries. If UMNO delegate’s proposal gets such an urgent and immediate attention, we don’t need expert opinions and public consultations. This can only be expected from a deputy prime minister who is Malay first and Malaysian second.

But our education system is going down the drains. Malaysians who migrate to other countries cite the deteriorating education quality as one of the key reasons for moving out. Malaysia is finding it difficult to attract foreign and overseas talent because of our poor quality education. Richer Malaysians sent their children to international schools. 70000 Malay children are in Chinese schools. Thousands of Malaysian children cross over to Singapore for schooling every day. Even those who sent their children to national have to spend quite a fortune on tuition classes. Tuition is a thriving business in Malaysia. Without tuition classes the results in national schools will be atrocious. Islamization of national schools is of great concern to many parents. The quality of headmasters and teachers are pale shadows of the past. Education in Malaysia should be in ICU now undergoing rigorous test of its validity and general health.

Knowing UMNO politicians, the history subject will now be stuffed with UNMO politics and Islamized and the contribution of non Malays will be distorted if not deleted. This will make our students further dislike history subject and will make the teaching of history more difficult for history teachers. It was reported in the media that “Ministry of education will improve the contents of the history syllabus by emphasizing the aspects relating to the country's constitution, with the aim of shaping a deep understanding of how this country which we love was shaped,” said Muhyiddin. He added that in 2014 would also see the introduction of history as a core subject in primary schools under the Primary School Standard Curriculum. This report makes us a laughing stock and history subject is certain to be unpopular. Students will be stuffed with lies, half truth which will polarize thinking students leading to confusion amongst Malaysian students. Thanks to UMNO!

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