KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Education has sought to defend a controversial paragraph in the Form 1 Sejarah (History) textbook currently in use, reports the Malay Mail Online (MMO).

The disputed fact, which was pointed out by local writer Uthaya Sankar SB in his Facebook post on June 30, comes from a paragraph from the 2009 edition of the book published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka which reads –

“Kedatangan orang Portugis ke Timur dikaitkan dengan keinginan mereka meneruskan Perang Salib. Mereka ingin menghancurkan kerajaan Islam yang ada di Timur termasuk kerajaan Melaka yang merupakan pusat perkembangan dan penyebaran agama Islam. Pada masa yang sama, Portugis mahu menyebarkan agama Kristian.”

[Translation: “The arrival of the Portuguese to the East was associated with their desire to continue the Crusades. They aimed to destroy the existing Islamic governments of the East, including the Malacca government, which was then the centre for the expansion and propagation of Islam. At the same time, the Portuguese wanted to spread Christianity.”]

“The fact in that textbook is correct and there is no error and the fact is based on checks and verification by the Quality Control Committee by local history experts appointed by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka,” the ministry was quoted by the MMO as saying, adding that the alleged “fact” was already stated when the current edition first went into print in 2002.

MMO named the Quality Control Committee members as Abd Rahman Ali (Chairman), Professor Dr Khoo Kay Kim, Professor Dr Sabihah Osman, Associate Professor Dr Abdul Rahim Abd Rashid, Dr Nabir Abdullah, Dr Abdul Razak Dali, Dr Ahmad Jelani Halimi, Mohd Supian Sabtu, Masariah Mispari, Johara Abdul Wahab, Hasnah Hamzah, Norjah Yusop, Muslimin Fadzil, Ahmad Zainudin Husin and Khairul Azman Suhaimy.

However, University of Malaya’s History Department Associate Professor Dr Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja, who sits on the Education Ministry’s oversight panel on history books, was quoted by MMO as saying that the disputed paragraph was incorrect although he claimed that the error was unintentional.

He said that the primary purpose for which the Portuguese came to Malacca was for spice trade.

He added, however, that other reasons such as spreading Christianity, weakening Islam and attaining glory have been present in local history textbooks since the 1960s.

According to the MMO report, the Committee had reviewed the matter on July 2.

Eh ini macam dari saya

Lel.

Hence they always comes with pastor and doctor.

Just like in the movie tears of the sun. Nothing wrong really.

At least not asking to kill everyone and burn everything. Like the other party in tears of the sun.

Sana ada pork burger dan egg tart

Bumiputera starus right

China and japan?

1. Japan is using chinese words. And then they raged and they invented their own words. But still using chinese words.
2. Japan has literally no resources.
3. China has plenty of resources.
4. Actually japanese emperor were from china. Feel free to argue and dispute.