My Reflection upon ‘A People’s History of Malaysia.’

A generation which ignores history has no past and no future - Robert Heinlein.

A few months ago, I read a very essential book about Malaysian history written by Prof. Dr. Syed Husin Ali. It is a modest book that combines many aspects of history that many of us tend to forget about.

The struggles of different groups fighting for the rights of people before we achieve independence have been frequently passed over by Malaysians, especially the young generation. In his book, Dr Syed Husin Ali categorized three types of history: Official History, Alternative History, and People's History. I will summarize all these categories based on the writer's approaches.

Official History is generally historical narrative that have always been promoted by any current-day government and is clearly illustrated in many secondary school textbooks.

Alternative History, on the other hand, is the portrayal of history that is considered to be the alternative of the Official History.

For instance, we commonly emphasized the role of Tunku Abdul Rahman and other UMNO leaders as important figures who helped our country gain independence from the British. On the contrary, Alternative History highlights the role of other factions or political movements such as Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) and Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) which contributed greatly to help our nation achieve independence without excluding the roles of other factions.

It should be mentioned that KMM was founded by Ibrahim Yaakob and Ishak Haji Muhammad (Pak Sako) in 1938. As for PKMM, it was then a political party led by Mokhtaruddin Lasso and later was taken over by Dr Burhanuddin Helmi to be their leader. These were the entities that struggled bravely and eventually open the eyes of the Malayan people at that time to fight against colonialism to establish this state with our identity.

This article is not going to highlight the details of these political movements. All of them can be discovered in this book.

Differing from the previous two historical narratives, People's History stresses the roles of individuals and factions from the lower class of a society, or better known as the proletariat masses. It is the opposite of Official History where the focus is placed more on the elites and the victors. Dr Syed Husin Ali warns that one should not exaggerate the roles and contributions of any individuals.

One of the interesting parts of this book that captivated me was when the writer describes the role of Kaum Muda (Younger Generation) in shaping our current society.

Most of their ideas were deemed as radical at that time where they openly criticized the Malay Royalty, and their insistence to abolish any practice that they viewed to be falsely ascribed to Islam, where they labeled these practices as bid'ah, which meant religious innovations. They believed these religious innovations was what caused the decline in the Muslim world in the first place, and to move forward, it is necessary to abolish all these practices.

But alas, their vigorous movement in demanding independence and their efforts to inculcate a fighting spirit against the colonialists in the masses were restricted and put to a halt by the authorities at that time.

To sum up, I highly recommend this book, mainly for the younger generation that has no or little academic background in history, particularly Malaysian history, as this book was written in a simple manner that can be easily understood and comprehended by any layman.

Dr. Syed Husin Ali