The Importance of History

I learnt history in school and during my time it was an obligatory subject to learn and pass in major exams.


It started with just local and national history. Then it moved on to European and Asian histories. I even had 2 semesters of TITAS in university, which stands for Tamadun Islam dan Tamadun Asia. It focuses on Islamic, Malay, Chinese and Indian civilisations.


To be frank, I never liked learning history. It was full of things that have already happened. There were always too many names to remember, too many exact dates to memorise and too many roles to commit to mind. And during exam I was expected to churn out those information verbatim. I had no appreciation for history. I excelled in exams for the subject because I had to.


It was only when I worked and lived in a different state from my hometown that I realised the importance of knowing my history. History helped me explain some disagreements and popular myths about my home state. Sometimes I would use history to ridicule people who had little or no knowledge at all of my home state, but this only happened when the prejudices were unbearable. 


Usually I would be very nice at explaining things to people who would like to know more. I was and still am a nice person.


So after many years of not having to explain myself or my ancestry to strangers with my Malaysia's and Sarawak's history, I found myself in a very familiar situation a couple of weeks back at a local playgroup that I attended.


The question was: WHY DO YOU HAVE AN ENGLISH NAME?


"Why not?"

"Why can't I?"

"Why do you think I can't have an english name as my name?"


No, I did not answer the lady back with those questions.


Instead I politely explained that my parents liked that name and they thought it would be good to bestow that name to their daughter.


I was anticipating follow up questions that would require my history knowledge. 


However the conversation turned to other subjects and I was happy with chatting away about mundane stuff.


I am glad that I still have my history knowledge intact and I have no problem sharing with others about my ancestry if there was a need. 


The past teaches us a lot about the present, and the present helps us shape our future.


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