Subramaniam: Trend of distorting facts in text books on the rise

PETALING JAYA: There has recently been an increasing trend of people distorting facts to fit into the disordered and disturbed perception of individuals, says MIC president Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam (pic).

In a statement on Tuesday, Dr Subramaniam said such individuals have led to the release of educational contents where facts have been dangerously mutilated by their disordered perception.

"Distorted historical facts are in school text books, in examination questions and now in university slides," he said.

He was speaking about a teaching module belonging to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) which was derogatory to the Hindu and Sikh communities in Malaysia.

The matter recently became viral on Facebook and deputy education minister Datuk P.Kamalanathan had met the vice-chancellor of the university on the matter on Monday.

The vice-chancellor had apparently claimed the module to be a 'mistake' and agreed to have it taken down.

Speaking on this matter, Dr Subramaniam said the “so-called mistakes" in the lecture slides of UTM have triggered a serious concern on the level of knowledge and depth of understanding of the various cultures and religions in Malaysia.

"This current case reflects that this desire to be ignorant had permeated to the dons of the ivory tower and the supposed pedestal of knowledge has become a pool of ignorance.

"We have seen this in schools before and now we realize it is also evident in universities," he said.

He then questioned the lack of intellectual honesty and added that there has to be a sincere desire by those in the educational system to be historically and factually true.

"Attempts to compare cultures and religions are always dangerous. It is dangerous even in the most liberated intellectual environment, what more in a multicultural and multi religious Malaysia?.

"Any attempt to do so has to be treated with careful steps," he said.

On Monday, Kamalanathan had posted a screen grab of the teaching module which had made claims that Hindus preferred to be 'dirty' and that Islam had taught Hindu followers "manners in life".

It stated that "some Hindu followers believed that dirt on the body is a form of ritual which could lead to attainment of Nirvana"

Another slide claimed that Sikhism is a combination of Hindu and Islam, but the founder of the religion had a shallow understanding of Islam.