The Half-Past-Six Book

A bunch of half-past-six academicians in UPM with half-past-six worldview wrote a half-past-six book on their version of half-past-six history to achieve whatever half-past-six objective they have in their half-past-six minds.

The content of the book was so seditious that even an UMNO Minister, Mohd Nazri, currently acting Law Minister, condemned it as seditious and a piece of rubbish that should be withdrawn.

But a half-past-six and very obdurate Higher Education Minister with lower education ethics refused to admit to his half-past-six blunder, or the half-past-six balls up of his half-past-six team of half-past-six historical creationism. So he half-past-six-ly averred that the half-past-six book was based on 'facts', but not admitting that those so-called ‘facts’ were nothing more than half-past-six nonsense.

But under enormous pressure, including from his own Barisan Nasional colleagues, he said students who disagreed with the contents could debate it during class.

Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang responded to his half-past-six last defiant stand by asking: “Is Mustapa serious in suggesting that in the ethnic relations class, students will have full freedom to argue about who started the May 13 riots ...?”

Lim has the following examples in mind, namely:

(1) Can students in the ethnic relations class argue that it was UMNO or Gerakan which caused the May 13, 1969 racial riots?

(2) Can they quote the nation’s first PM Tunku Abdul Rahman who implied that certain elements in UMNO were responsible for the incident?

(3) Can they cite the then Australian deputy high commissioner, WB Prichett, who noted: “...there can be no doubt that UMNO was solely responsible for the riots. Its members ran the communal campaign or allowed it to happen.”

We may have to wait until half-past-six before we get a half-past-six answer from a half-past-six Minister.

***

Well, I wrote the above last night, and by half-past six today, plus or minus whatever ;-) , I read that PM AAB has ordered the half-past-six book withdrawn, although he diplomatically said:

"The (higher education) ministry wants to replace the book with another book and the cabinet agreed. I think that's an apt move because the first book appears to be so controversial."

But Vijay wrote in to Malaysiakini to say that withdrawing the textbook is not good enough, because the root cause has not yet been dealt with. He wants action taken against those racists who compiled the offensive text. He wants the AAB government to demonstrate to the world that it respects non-Malay sensitivities.

Well, KTemoc opines that it's not so much non-Malay sensitivities per se, though according these some consideration would be good and most welcome.

Since sedition is a crime in Malaysia, and Mohd Nazri, the Law Minister himself has termed the textbook as seditious, the AAB government must charge those so-called professors who wrote that book, the publisher and the Higher Education Minister for acts of sedition. Now, if AAB does that, he may get my respect. But I am not going to hold my breath, well, certainly not until half-past-six.

Related:
(1) UMNO's Book of Burning Bridges
(2) The Height of .....!
(3) The Real Cause of the May 13 Riots
(4) New Fact on May 13 Revealed!
(5) AB Sulaiman Pissing into the Wind?