Malaysian history is already Malay-centric. Why do some Malays think their history is suppressed?

KUALA LUMPUR – From claiming that Malays could fly to arguing that they taught the Romans how to build ships, Malaysian linguistics professor Solehah Yaacob has become the butt of international ridicule and a source of embarrassment at home.

Although she was fired by the International Islamic University Malaysia in April, she still has plenty of supporters who believe that Malay achievements have been suppressed, misrepresented or hidden in mainstream history.

New videos continue to be uploaded daily on Solehah’s social media accounts, followed by more than 500,000 people across Facebook and TikTok, drawing supportive comments from viewers.

“Professor Solehah is not only smart, but also sincere in spreading the truth, and bravely uncovering the dirty work of colonisers,” Facebook user Muhammad Muadzam wrote.

Support for Solehah’s work extends beyond the internet.

Her multi-day Lost Malay History and Civilisation seminar is in its fifth iteration since the inaugural series was held in Kuala Lumpur in November 2025, signalling sustained demand for such content.

ST contacted Solehah for comment, but she did not respond by press time.

Malay socio-political and economic anxieties

Sociologist Aziff Azuddin from Iman Research told The Straits Times: “My reading is that the multicultural landscape of Malaysia, as well as Malay socio-political and economic anxieties, is why nativists, right-wingers – and people like Solehah – have such a purchase among some sections of the Malay community.”

Nativism is the belief that a country should primarily reflect and protect the interests and identity of those regarded as its original inhabitants, often at the expense of groups seen as later arrivals.

Support for nativist views reflects a persistent sense of historical marginalisation among some Malay Muslims, say sociologists, even as Malaysia’s mainstream history is itself often criticised for privileging Malay-Muslim narratives over the country’s pre-Islamic past.

Malays make up more than 60 per cent of Malaysia’s 34 million people and enjoy constitutionally protected privileges, but perceptions of Chinese economic strength have long fuelled unease among some over their own position.

Scholars who challenge mainstream Malaysian history

Aside from Solehah, there are others like historian Azmi Arifin from Universiti Sains Malaysia.

He has been vocal on social media in challenging mainstream accounts of Malaysian history, arguing that they rely excessively on biased British Orientalist sources.

Azmi, who has more than 28,000 followers on TikTok, argues that Malaysian history inherited terms such as “feudal” and “absolute monarchy”, which he says do not fully reflect the political and cultural realities of traditional Malay government.

“When we use concepts from Europe, we are indirectly and automatically making a Eurocentric comparison,” he said in a podcast in August.

He cited how Malay anti-colonial figures like Mat Kilau, a Pahang chieftain who led an uprising against the British, were labelled as “rebels”, noting that this reflected a British perspective.

For some Malay nativists, the country’s multi-ethnic character has diluted Malay historical primacy and obscured the place of Malays at the centre of the national story.

This is despite Malaysian schools placing heavy emphasis on the 15th-century Melaka Sultanate as the golden age of Malay political power and the starting point for the story of modern Malaysia.

Aziff, who recently published an article titled “Why Malaysians cannot agree on their own history”, said each ethnic group has a stake in where the country’s history begins.

“The non-Malays are disinclined to accept a pre-British administrative history because that’s not where ‘Malaysian history’ began for them,” he argued, adding that doing so also means “surrendering to the Malay nativist agenda”.

Malay nativists like Solehah have turned further into the past to reinforce the claim that Malays possess a historical primacy that gives them a special claim over the country in the present.

In a video published on Sept 6, she dismissed the Malays’ Hindu-Buddhist past as “mere propaganda”.

“It is a systematic propaganda from the 1800s,” she claimed, perpetrated by Western figures including Stamford Raffles.

“The so-called (Hindu-Buddha) relics found are put there recently.”

Her other lectures, shared widely on YouTube, also blend Malay history with Islam, with claims such as that Abraham was Malay and that Moses travelled to Gunung Jerai in Kedah, while drawing links between the Malay world and Khadijah, the wife of Prophet Muhammad.

Historian Eddin Khoo said the close identification of Malayness with Islam has made the region’s pre-Islamic past uncomfortable for some nativists, despite abundant evidence of Hindu and Buddhist influence in ancient Kedah.

“Solehah is a fantasist, but people want to believe that about themselves,” Khoo told ST. “To them, everything must trace back to their puritanical idea of Islam; otherwise, it is illegitimate.”

He describes this as “essentialist history”, in which communities look to the past for evidence of their own superiority.

Khoo said there is an irony in seeking a culturally pure Malay past when historical Malay societies were deeply cosmopolitan, shaped by centuries of interaction with India, China, the Middle East and Europe.

Evidence of this can be found in the records of Portuguese chronicler Tome Pires who said that 84 languages were spoken in Melaka in the 1500s.

“Malays today are struggling to come to terms with their own historical ‘worldliness’,” Khoo argued. “Nowadays, foreign influences are sometimes treated as a threat rather than enriching Malay civilisation.”

Alternative history books

While fantastical histories have long circulated on the fringes, the involvement of credentialled academics can give such claims legitimacy.

Nor is it just about one or two academics with unorthodox views.

Novelist and Malay sociologist Faizal Musa from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia pointed to the wide acceptance of alternative history books, which popularise the idea of hidden and esoteric historical facts.

The appetite for such books is reflected in the reach of publishers such as The Patriots, whose official Shopee store has more than 52,000 followers and whose books on history, geopolitics and civilisation have recorded thousands of sales on the platform.

Its catalogue includes titles such as Jangan Selewengkan Sejarah Melayu (Don’t Distort Malay History), which has spawned a sequel and an updated edition, as well as Ilmu Alam Melayu: Mistik, Manuskrip & Mitologi (Knowledge Of The Malay World: Mysticism, Manuscripts & Mythology), which explores subjects including supposedly lost Malay manuscripts.

For those who believe in hidden facts, the absence of a claim from textbooks or conventional scholarship can itself become evidence that the “true” history has been deliberately hidden.

“Simple explanations are often seen as more appealing and credible than complex ones, particularly when they appear capable of being tested or disproved,” Faizal told ST.

The persistence of such beliefs, the scholars said, reflects how debates over history are often driven as much by contemporary anxieties over identity and status as by disagreements over the past itself.

Faizal said the phenomenon was neither uniquely Malay nor Malaysian, citing similar ethno-religious currents in India and the United States.

“It’s a global issue in understanding history.”

Khoo, however, warned that the continued propagation of this unsubstantiated alternative history chisels away at the intricacies of a community’s collective history.

“Myth has an important role in not just Malay, but also Asian history; however, this is not even myth – it is fantasy,” he said.