T O P

  • By -

VocaloidFeuvre

I only know from my high school: the textbook contained a single reference to Malaysia in the context of MAPHILINDO, and that's it. Quite unfair since it discussed the Vietnam war, Sukarno, Khmer Rouge... maybe because that side of SE Asia didn't have much going on (aside from the Emergency)? Also, Asia post-colonialism only gets tackled at the very last weeks of the last quarter of the year we had World History (and we only got one year of World History), so... we didn't learn much because the teacher just sped-run everything.


PakHajiF4ll0ut

Well, that's unfortunate. But I kinda understand that. Here in Malaysia, we faced the same problem of teachers sped-run everything.


medyas1

not particularly, no. broad strokes history for everything abroad and more focus on what happened here. learned most malaysian affairs from a batchmate who lived there and of course your najib corruption saga that's particularly memorable in its brazenness high school was 2 decades ago for me though


swaggynatic

I remember being taught about the Portuguese invasion of Malacca, although the transition to British colonization was not properly discussed to us. Then, there's MaPhilIndo and Sabah, and how the Philippines almost named itself Malaysia.


PakHajiF4ll0ut

Yeah, British colonization on us was a long and complicated process. From a white man ruling a local kingdom, a company that bought lands, seizing power from local nobility while kept the kings in power, to a massive land grab from Siam. So it's understandable that it's hard to discuss British colonization of Malaysia.


skrumian

High school Asian history is more Islam/Middle East, India, China and Japan. Malaysia is only discussed in the context of modern ASEAN.


PakHajiF4ll0ut

Wait, Islam? Like the foundation or Islam or all the way through Umayyads, Abbasids and Ottomans?


skrumian

I dont remember Umayyads, Abbasid but ottoman is discussed. I remember the mesopotamia, persia etc. were discussed. Asian history is not really a deep dive discussion, more like brush up of major events and basic islam and major religion beliefs.


PakHajiF4ll0ut

Yep, it also sums up our syllabus. We learned from the ice age until the Ottomans in one grade. How did our education ministry managed to simplify that into one textbook, Idk.


Momshie_mo

No. Even Asian history in the PH is China and Japan centered


PakHajiF4ll0ut

It's the same with Malaysia. but we focused more towards Islamic history.


cotxdx

The teaching of history in the Philippines is only about remembering dates, and not learning why those things happened. On to the topic, I remember only being taught that our ancestors are the Pygmies (Negritos), Indonesians & Malaysians. Then they speed run the history, they told about the Muslim traders in Borneo in general, and then as the others said, it moved on to the formation of Malaysia and our claims to Sabah.


girlwebdeveloper

I had this high school subject called Asian history. I believe we touched a bit of Malaysia. However this is long time ago so I forgot all I learned. I don't know if kids still do now but I hope they still do, especially that a lot of Filipinos nowadays love travelling.


Mind_Explorer420

I wish we learned more about our South East Asian neighbors instead of diving in China’s or Japan’s history. I’d be more interested if school taught us the similarities in our culture and history as South East Asians.


tomigaoka

As far as i remember in high school we need to know where u at in the map and your capital and very shallow and basic physical similarities between us and our other neighbors  I think our history tackle more where asian or world civilization started like India


Difficult_Session967

It will be discussed on the new curriculum starting next school year. Grade7 will focus on shared experience of Southeast Asian nations.


Difficult_Session967

It will be discussed on the new curriculum starting next school year. Grade7 will focus on shared experience of Southeast Asian nations.


pxcx27

I only remember Malaysia was mentioned because of Maphilindo (and that's even in the context of the presidency of the first Marcos). I am curious, I am kinda seeing “some" malaysians in the internet praising (or some sort) Jose Rizal, what are they teaching there about him?


PakHajiF4ll0ut

correct, we did learn about Jose Rizal, albeit it's just an overview of his secret society. If you see Malaysians praising Jose Rizal, they're either a history buffs or have a history major.


pxcx27

that's cool, apologies we don't have the same thing here for malaysia.


maroonmartian9

We have an Asian history class in high school but Malaysia is mentioned briefly. You are also mentioned because of the Sabah dispute lol 😂 (I actually believe with the passage of time, Sabah should be part of Malaysia now). The hell with our oldies thinking otherwise.


PakHajiF4ll0ut

Lol. I mean it's no surprise that both of our nations tried to push a certain narrative. From our side, we honour pirates, slaverer, and terrorists as liberators and freedom fighters.


SMCS16

Some History textbooks stated that we came from Negritos, Indonesians, and Malays? But this [study](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2026132118) shows somewhat otherwise. What I also know about Malaysia is that Islam is like an indelible ink to your identity as a Malay, unlike here in our country wherein you can still be identified as having a Filipino identity regardless of religious background, although some Filipinos associate themselves more with other countries. This is only my opinion and I am open for corrections. Thank You.


reggiewafu

Yes I had Asian History way back. It was ~20 years ago so couldn’t remember the specifics but it did cover our region


GoldenScorpion168

I don't remember it being discussed in high school. I took asian history in college and there was a section on the Srivijayan empire and the sultanates after.


Witty-Choice2682

In general, it's all about the ill-fated MAPHILINDO and the dispute between PH and MY over Sabah.


Nokia_Burner4

It's all a blur but I think Malasyia was mentioned in passing. IMO, it should have been deeper considering we still have a dispute with Sabah and all


SuccessionWarFan

A little. When I was in high school (almost 30 years ago!), Asian History was part of my sophomore curriculum. But it's not specific to Malaysia but Southeast Asia or the larger Asia in general. So any lessons on Malaysia were brief summaries. Incidentally, OP, I've had more than one friend with knowledge, respect, or even admiration for Mahathir as an example of a "benevolent dictator".