Reconstructing the Past Through Oral History: A Malaysian Experience
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Abstract
This paper examines the development of the oral history programme in Malaysia as a methodology to reconstruct the nation’s history and heritage. Oral history refers to efforts to record and document a historical event or social phenomenon through people’s experience and memory that enable us to have a deeper understanding of the past. In short, by recording people’s experiences and memories from their personal lives, the oral history methodology acts as a bridge to connect the past to the present. For Southeast Asian countries which are rich in historical experiences and cultural diversity, the oral history project had begun in the 1960s with each country individually initiating its own oral history programme. This paper focuses on the experience of Malaysia which was the first to initiate an oral history programme, its subsequent development, the parties involved and the inclination or focus of oral history projects that were implemented. Even though Malaysia preceded other Southeast Asian countries in creating an oral history programme, the oral history methodology as a mode of reconstructing the nation’s past and heritage is not particularly outstanding. This paper addresses this nagging issue and examines the challenges in implementing the oral history programme in this country. The paper recommends to the Malaysian government to activate the oral history programme which should be subsumed under an Oral History Centre at the national level so that the collection of historical information and the nation’s heritage will be based on the inclusive memory of the community not just on written documents which are remnants of the colonial legacy.
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