Twisted history of Omar Hashim

Who is this jerk?

This man gives a frighteningly myopic account of how Indian Malaysians came to be citizens of this country. Omar categorises the entire group as 'convict labourers' invited to work in the estates and build the earliest infrastructure. (Part 2 is here.)

Omar Hashim, executive committee chairman of the Malaysian History Association, does not mention anything about the backbone of the civil service whose structure was modeled from British India. Who do you think trained our people, got us into the groove of running a public sector?

He does not mention the courts and the entire support network required to run it; the court clerks, lawyers, registrars.

He does not mention hospitals from early doctors to those who manned the emergency and ambulatory service.

He does not mention the first teachers, who helped implement an education system modeled on that of British India.

He does not mention the first organised army regiment, the sepoys in Penang; he does not even acknowledge the brave Indian soldiers who died standing their ground resisting the wave of Japanese forces on their way down south. These men were massacred fighting for the freedom of a land of which they held no citizenship.

And who do you think were the brave second-liners who marshaled the early police force?

Omar Hashim is not a historian. He is a political weed hoping to gain some prominence in spreading lies on behalf of the Umno agenda. And like countless other weedstock, he uses the racial line:

"The Malays have been left behind in the quest for the economic cake of the country. The situation can be described like this: For every Ringgit each of the Malays obtained for their household income, the Chinese gets two Ringgit while it is one and a quarter Ringgit for the Indians.

In 2004 the household income according to race showed that the Chinese earns RM4,426 per month, the Malays RM2,711 whilst the Indians RM3,456. The data proved that the New Economic Policy, which has been vehemently opposed by certain non-Malay parties, in actual fact had benefited the Chinese and the Indians."

History requires a wider lens than race, something the executive chairman of some hack history association seems to be besotted with. Then again, can you expect anything more from fungus? They shun from light.


p.s. i googled and yahooed to find out more about the Malaysian History Association, and this Omar guy. There's nothing. Like i said - fungus. (There is mention of the Malaysian Historical Society, which is well-known among people in the discipline)

p.p.s.: (1.03am) ahhh... found something on Omar Hashim. At least an Omar Hashim that's somewhat consistent with the credentials stated in the Bernama report. Very, very enlightening. See here. It's a transcript of an interview (Nov 30, 1999) conducted by Australia Broadcasting Corporation after the 1999 Malaysian General Elections. Omar was 'chairman of the Election Commission'. Notice how the interview ends.