Monday November 30, 2009

Lessons from history

By IAN YEE

How much do young Malaysians know about communism in our history?

IT’S common knowledge that history isn’t exactly the most popular subject among young people these days.

Fahmi Fadzil

But when it comes to something as important as the history of communism in Malaysia, performer/writer Fahmi Fadzil believes young Malaysians can’t afford to be ignorant.

“I don’t think young Malaysians know what is really meant by communism, as much as they know it from what’s been taught in schools and the mainstream media.

“(Learning about Malayan communism) is important, so that young people won’t be so gullible. I think history serves as a lesson, to some extent, for the present.

Young Malaysians these days are not particularly aware of politics, or at least what political ideologies are espoused by different parties,” said Fahmi.

Fahmi was one of those involved in organising last year’s multi-arts Emergency! Festival, which sought to present the 12-year Malayan Emergency, declared by the British to counter Malayan communists, in a creative, exciting way that would get young people interested in this crucial part of our history.

According to him, one of the biggest misconceptions young Malaysians have about communism is that it inherently involves terrorism. “I think that’s the dominant image repeated on TV and mainstream media.

“During the Emergency, there were atrocities on both sides. It was a war, after all. And because we’ve not reconciled our history –like with a Truth & Reconciliation Tribunal to talk about what happened back then – I’m not sure how young people will relate to this part of our past,” he said.

So do young people really not care about our history? Are they really that ignorant to not be bothered about what communism is?

We decided to quiz some college/university students to find out. Here’s what they had to say:

Shaun Koh

“I remember the communists in Malaya as people who were fighting for liberation. A lot of young people think communists are all about terrorism and dictatorships. What they need to understand is that when the communists were in Malaya, it was a time of war. They were trying to gather people to gain freedom, though personally, I think they did it the wrong way. But young people don’t really get to learn all this in school. I had to find out myself by reading other books.” – Shaun Koh, 19

“Young people today think communism is all about hard rule and dictatorship. I actually think communism as an ideology is really good, just that in reality, well, you can already see how it hasn’t quite worked out in history. Communism would only work in a perfect world, without things like greed and other human flaws.” – Chong Jinn Wei, 21

“To be honest, I don’t really know much about it. All I know is the communists in Malaysia back then were trying to overthrow the rulers. As a science student, I think it’s important to learn about our national identity through history, but it’s not quite applicable in terms of my future career. The way Malaysian history is taught in schools doesn’t make it applicable to everyone either. It was a very dry subject for me.” – Eric Hui, 21

Sulina Kaur

“People these days are so caught up in the here and now that they lose their appreciation for the past. I’m from Ipoh, and I know that there was a lot of communist activity there a few decades ago, but not many people talk about it. All I know about it is what I learned from our high school textbooks, and even then those textbooks are structured towards certain elements, and a lot of the things left out are actually what makes it more interesting.” – Sulina Kaur, 24

Lochna Menon

“In high school, the communists are always portrayed as bad, as going against the rulers and I just accepted it that way. My family doesn’t really understand communism either. Malaysians are pretty sheltered that way from different opinions. It was only in university that the idea of communism was given a fair chance for discussion. It’s actually a fair ideology that was never given the chance to mature. People have misconceptions about it because of the dictatorships that came from communism.” – Lochna Menon, 20

“I only know a little bit from high school, and all they said was that communism is bad. I did do a little reading on the Internet, tried to find a different point of view; but honestly, I don’t really care much because at the end of the day, I think it’s all just a matter of perspective. What annoys me is people who are ignorant. People who just say it’s bad, but aren’t willing to give or find a proper reason to back that up.” – Mohammad Irfan Lukman, 19

“I don’t really know anything. I didn’t like Sejarah (history) back in high school, and it was so long ago. I only remember reading about PKM (the Malayan Communist Party) and Chin Peng, but what it was all about, I don’t know.” – Emily Chai, 19

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