Malaysian Anti-racism course at universitiesis deemed bigoted
It also glosses over their contribution to nation building and treats the ruling National Front as Malaysia's saviour. Opposition leaders are demanding the government withdraw the university course textbook, which was written by nine contributors, and rewrite some of its content.
"The textbooks must be withdrawn immediately because it is divisive and contains many false statements that will create hatred among races," said Lim Guan Eng, secretary general of the main opposition Democratic Action Party.
The textbook gives a broad, nationalistic view of pre-colonial Malay society, the position of Islam, arrival of the British and the radical changes that happened with the arrival of Chinese and Indian labourers.
But it glosses over the contribution of Chinese pioneers in the economic development of the country.
The government had hired experts to design the course last year after a government study found the main Malay, Chinese and Indian races rarely interacted beyond the workplace. Although they lived side-by-side, they lived separate lives.
The campus was chosen as the best place to bring the races together and Ethnic Relations, a six-month course, was designed to achieve this aim.
The course started yesterday for 37,000 undergraduates in all 17 public universities.
Critics said the problem was in the textbook's treatment of contemporary history.
It blames Chinese "insults" of Malays for sparking the 1969 race riots and Indians for setting off a minor clash in 2001.
The textbook describes the Malaysian Chinese Election Appeals Committee, a prominent Chinese group that champions democracy and equal rights, as "extremist".
"The extremists' demands [for equality] should cease in order to defend the harmony that has so far been achieved," the textbook, in the Malay language, says.
It blames "Indian youths" for the 2001 clash.
"The ruling parties' many scandals and infighting that periodically shake national unity and stability are not blamed at all," opposition lawmaker M. Kulasegaran said.
"We want the distortions of history and perversion of the truth to be removed from the university syllabus."
Opposition lawmakers are expected to move a motion in Parliament this week that would force the government to withdraw the textbook.
The dispute over this and other history textbooks is a hotly debated subject in the media.
"Malaysia was and still is a melting pot of various races, but the contribution of the Chinese and Indian communities in the socio-economic development of our country is downplayed in our current history textbooks," historian Ranjit Singh Malhi, who was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times, a government linked mass-circulation daily.
But the government is standing firm and will not stop the course or rewrite the textbook but will make "adjustments" after studying the criticism.
"It is improper to stop the course just because of the criticism," Higher Education deputy minister Ong Tee Keat said.
The controversy comes as Parliament is debating whether to repeal sections of a law governing undergraduates to free them from many restrictions that have, critics say, turned many students into bookworms.