FRENCH historian Serge Jardin has once again emerged to debunk the preposterous claims of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) adjunct professor Dr Hashim Musa.
Hashim gave an academic presentation in Melaka about the Malay Maritime Tradition and Tradition of Ship Building on June 20, 2023. In the seminar, Hashim showed an old picture to claim that Melaka welcomed over 2,000 ships in a day during the height of the Malay sultanate’s supremacy.
He also claimed that the Portuguese destroyed the old mosque and spoke about the “Mendam Berahi Boat”.
Jardin who has written several historical books on Melaka claimed that the image shown by Hashim was not of a Dutch fleet but Portuguese and the “mosque” was St Paul Church.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Prof Emeritus Dr Ahmad Adam also said that the “Mendam Berahi Boat” never existed and was a figment of the wild imagination of Hashim. Ahmad, the historian himself, went on to say that Hashim was not a historian but a “Malay chauvinist”.
Earlier, Hashim and his colleague from UPM, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communications Dr Rozita Che Rodi co-authored a paper titled “Jongs and the Galleys: Traditional Ships of the Past Malay Maritime Civilisation”. The paper was published in the Journal of Academic Research and Business and Social Sciences, Vol. 13, No. 11, in 2023.
Jardin contradicted the Malay jongs, who were indeed Chinese Foochow cargo ships from China.
Even the Malay jongs had their origins in Java, not the Malay peninsula. Unfortunately, UPM never investigated the matter of academic dishonesty saying that social science publications are subject to interpretation.
However, what was pointed out by Jardin was not so much an academic interpretation as academic dishonesty in the form of historical untruths. It is not too late for UPM to re-open the investigation of both academics.
Moreover, it is a shame that UPM, which boasts of academic excellence, condones and protects the nefarious practices of academics like Hashim and Rozita.
As a former academic and professor of political science, I take the allegations of academic dishonesty seriously. The United for the Rights of the Malaysian Party or Urimai will be writing to the Higher Education (MoHE) Minister on this matter of allegations of academic dishonesty perpetrated by the two academics at UPM.
Furthermore, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who takes much interest in the academic world, seems not to be bothered about the academic and intellectual dishonesty at UPM, one of the oldest public universities in the country. – April 5, 2024
Former DAP stalwart and Penang chief minister II Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is chairman of the Urimai (United Rights of Malaysian Party) Interim Council.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
