via The Rakyat Post, 03 April 2024: French historian Serge Jardin challenges Prof Datuk Dr Hashim Musa’s controversial claims about Melaka’s maritime history made during a seminar in Melaka. Dr Hashim, from Universiti Putra Malaysia, is accused of misrepresenting historical facts, including the false identification of a Dutch fleet as Portuguese and misinterpreting local landmarks. The same professor was called out by the same historian for authoring the fallacious Malay Jong paper.
Distinguished historian Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Ahmat Adam shared that the Mendam Berahi boat never existed and said Hashim was not a historian but a “Malay chauvinist.”
Meanwhile, Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Indonesian International Islamic University (UIII) Sharifah Munirah Alatas lamented the continuous rot in Malaysia’s higher education system.
She believes a change can only happen when there’s political will and if more academics and scholars get over their apathy to be outraged.
In response, Jardin said he’ll continue publicly highlighting each mistake or nonsense as he believes awareness is a first step. He’s currently working on an academic paper on the failure of some local scholars.
