via New Straits Times, 18 August 2019: Interview with Datin Saidah Rastam, director of the Melaka in Fact project.
It’s important to tell our children about Melaka’s history, Saidah said.
“The superb governance, savviness and nimbleness of Parameswara (Melaka’s first king) hopping between superpowers like China had made Melaka great. The rulers did it then and they can do it again now.”
She said the lack of research and educated debates on history, however, had turned it into an “explosive” subject.
In 2015, the Malaysian Heritage and History Club Facebook page posed a question on Parameswara, which garnered 200 comments.
“Most of the comments were on whether he was a Hindu, and if this led to the government not acknowledging it.
“ Then some history professors said Parameswara was just a title. Nobody was sure about his origins.”
She said ongoing debates on Parameswara pointed to the fact that even academics were unsure if the textbooks were accurate.
“What hit me was the history that we are being taught is standing like a pack of cards.
