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An analysis of Wang Gungwu's The Use of History.

Research · April 2016

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4518.4401

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Adi Farhud
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 SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA

An analysis of Wang Gungwu’s

The Use of History

By
Adi Farhud

1
 Wang Gungwu’s The Use of History begins with the contextualisation of the meaning of
the word history. According to the author, the word history can be understood in two different
standpoints; the former illustrates our knowledge of the past while the latter explains the
activities that have already occurred in the past. Anyhow, here, Gungwu chooses to further
elaborate the former since the latter can be made known through a large number of surviving
records at our disposal.
The first section aims to provide a discussion of the three principal purposes of history,
along with its three significant methods. The next section is intended to investigate how history
was being used in Malaysia, Europe and how it was being presented in higher education in
Malaysia before independence. Building on from that idea, the author later seeks to explore the
apparent downside of looking upon the sort of history seen through the eyes of a colonial
framework.
Moving on to the next chapter, Gungwu continues to articulate his concerns on topics
pertaining to the three purposes and methods he discussed earlier, that how these purposes and
methods, as a matter of fact, are inextricable. In his effort to further explicate the role of history,
the author thereupon reminds his fellow readers of the varied obligations and duties of a
historian, and its dangers of abuse.
In the last few pages of The Use of History, Gungwu provides an interesting viewpoint
with regard to the widely held belief which advocates such a view that our country has rather so
little history. The author disagrees, where he later argues that such an issue was in fact a result of
our indifference towards the history of our own country. It was also partly because tons of our
folkloric archives that were once thought to be historical, have now been deemed unworthy of
such category by the present-day standards of historiography.
In the concluding section of the treatise, Gungwu eulogises the courageous efforts taken
by a new generation of historians in pushing the boundaries of our traditional historiography.
They have since begun incorporating several other academic disciplines with the traditional
means of historiography. Almost all of his viewpoints on the use of history, with the exception of
a topic concerning history in the form of propaganda were well-reasoned. Even so, one feels that
such an intricate topic such as history and propaganda could use a more detailed commentary,
with examples that could perhaps exemplify the essential constituents of propagandised history.

2
 One may wonder, why are people interested in history? What could possibly be the
motive for such a curiosity? And ultimately, what do they hope to achieve from remembering the
past? According to Gungwu, there are at least three assertive purposes of why people are
inherently interested in history. Any of them may seem influential and dominant than the other
two at times but rarely did one exist alone, simply because each of them is complementary to one
another.
Of all the three purposes of history, the first one is known to be the most prevalent. The
first purpose of history is when history is being remembered with the aim of preserving one’s
identity, their births, and origins. This usually applies to a group of individuals bonded by family
ties, be they biological or social connections, or perhaps on a relatively larger scale; a population
in a specific country. These people are deemed to possess the trait of sharing this collective goal,
an inborn inclination to preserve the continuity of their community’s identity. They can be
traditions dating back to the day their great grandfathers were born, to an innumerable of
religious rituals handed down to them by their respective forefather’s forefathers.1
Such a phenomenon can be traced back to many communities and families in Malaysia,
irrespective of one’s ethnicity and religion. Most if not all, have a set of traditions they were
expected to adhere to. The younger generation is oftentimes advised by their elderly mothers and
fathers to abide by these sets of traditions, making sure that it gets handed down to the next
generation after them. Some of these traditions may derive from a specified subset of a specific
religion. Therefore, it is rather common that many have presumed it to be unmistakably
religious, that they are somehow obligated to practice it out of respect for the religion of their
forefathers. However, they are also those who didn’t, preferring instead to rationalise it for the
sake of keeping their forefathers’ traditions intact.
According to the author, the first subject of history nevertheless, may evolve depending
on how complex are consumers of history. In present-day society, almost all countries of the
world are now being governed by different sorts of social codes, many of which have often been
issued at the behest of democratic constitutions. Such a complexity will often result in the
establishment of more complex kinds of identity, and this, in turn, has developed more intricate

1
ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Charter: Principles and Guidelines for Managing Tourism at
Places of Cultural and Heritage Significance. Place of Publication Not Identified: International Council
on Monuments and Sites, ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Committee, 2002.

3
ways of comprehending history. In other words, the desire to remember is no longer primitive
nor individualistic, but rather oriented towards the common good.
The second one is rather pragmatic in many ways; this is when history is being used as
yet another source of morality. This is possibly the most expedient course of action most people
will often choose when they wanted to avoid making the same old mistakes in life all over again.
It has been established that there is a substantial quantity of practical insights from the past that
we humans could learn from. Put simply, the history itself is a collection of “Do's and Don'ts."
This is especially beneficial if one were to use it to encourage both public and private morality.
The motive behind it can be both political and social to humanism.
The second purpose of history can sometimes be seen moving side by side with religion.
Believers of the Abrahamic religions tend to show a rather strong inclination to cite passages
from scriptures when they wanted to encourage their other fellow adherents of the book to
behave accordingly. This, however, does have its drawback when it gets to be institutionalised;
owing to the fact that not all of these hearsay reports of the hadiths and the sacred writings of the
Quran, the Bible and the Torah, can simply be taken at face value. It occurs when a nation fails
to separate religion from the state, making it almost impossible for the posterity to forgo corpus
of primitive, 1400-year-old insights that came with it.2
The third purpose of history can be categorised as to when history is being practiced as a
form or substitute for religion. On the whole, it can sometimes be construed as being
philosophically superior to that of the other two mentioned earlier. This is not intended to allege
that the third purpose of history and the said functionality of any religion are one and the same.
Suffice it to say that the third one has always been resorted to as a means of comprehending
substantial questions concerning one’s very existence on earth. That history may be capable of
coming to the aid of these believers to satisfy some of their curiosities regarding their origins,
destiny and perhaps humanity.
With that being said, it should be noted too that the third purpose of history might not
only be limited to spiritual concerns. According to the author, faithless humans may find history
worthwhile to reflect on. To them, history itself is a somewhat spiritual journey, in the search for
answers to questions that perhaps their religion or former religion couldn’t seem to provide. This

2 AL R Joseph. "Jurisdictional Conflict between Islamic Law and Civil Laws in Malaysia." August 6,
2007. Accessed January 17, 2016. http://goo.gl/UrDYpM.

4
attitude can be traced back to 19th-century Europe when people began questioning Augustine’s
view on history. According to the Augustinian worldview, God is in control of everything that
happens to us, that God is rather at the centre of every purpose of history as opposed to humans.3
With three purposes of history, there are three methods of how history is frequently being
presented. Gungwu specifically divides these methods into three main categories. The first
method is when history is being presented in the form of narrative or story. The first method can
be said to be the most frequently used means of expression. Many chroniclers will often make
use of this form when they wanted to present an anecdote. Most of the narratives are didactic in
purpose and are usually presented in a form of a paperback novel, a book. Authors and co-
authors of the first method can be both professionals and amateur historians. Notwithstanding
their varying proficiency levels in writing history, most of them choose to do so because they
either wanted to entertain or to eulogise, to condemn or to blame, to praise or to glorify, to
idolise or to romanticise.
The first method is the most dominant form and is the most effective; they are readable,
enjoyable and are easier to procure, probably due to the fact that they are almost everywhere. In
present-day technology, along with the development of cutting-edge computerised gadgets to
palm-sized computers, those thick weighty printed books of the first method that have been
produced and reproduced in the not so distant past can now be browsed at the touch of our
fingertips. This is especially lucrative if one prefers to read more than one book at a time in
public places at their best convenience. With the aid of a web-based application such as
Goodreads, readers are now able to track their reading progress, locate, bookmark and share a
spectacularly massive amount of books of the first method among themselves.
The second method, on the other hand, is when history is being constructed through
critical and analytical scholarship. History in this category has always been authored by
intelligentsia with the expertise of a historian. Most of the writing materials are comprehensive,
meticulous and are methodical in purpose. Readers with no specialised knowledge or perhaps
those who have no passion for history may find these sorts of materials almost unreadable and
unentertaining.
According to the author, the second method is nonetheless new, and is subject to
improvements, that historians have a whole lot more to learn. For this reason, historians are

3
HJ. Abdul Rahman HJ Abdullah, Pengantar Sejarah (Pulau Pinang: PPJJ USM, 2011), 60-64.

5
encouraged to integrate several other academic disciplines involving individuals with varied
specialisations (e.g. natural and social sciences) when writing history. In other words, being
analytical in history may not solely be limited to upholding the integrity of our historical
findings; perhaps after integrity, historians may next aspire to construct a reasonably substantial
connection between historical records and scientific certainties.
The second method and the first method sometimes overlapped, in terms of how these are
being presented. They were oftentimes presented in a form of a printed material, or a book or
anything that resembles the purpose of a book; except the former being unmistakably analytical
while the latter were more of a simplified version of it. For instance, what do we call an abridged
version of Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire?
I cannot end without reminding you that it is of paramount importance that we need to
take into consideration, that humans, us, historians are prone to errors. No matter how
methodical the historiography itself may be, in Gungwu’s own words, “even the best of
historians is not free from his background and his predilections and biases.4” Nonetheless, I’m
rather certain that none of us historians were aspiring to become one when we were writing.
Reading the work of more than one professional on the same topic may be able to help us
counterbalancing any perspectives we deem biased.
Finally, the last method of presenting history is through the form of propaganda.
According to the author, of all the methods of presenting history, this last method can do the
most damage to history, let alone readers of history. At times, it can seem to emit an illusion of
possessing a considerable level of intellectual credibility to be referenced. Unprincipled users of
history will find this sort of history worthwhile. The result of the last method of history has often
been capitalised and used as moral justifications but to propagate evil, malevolent ideologies,
manipulations and lies. A fine example of this can be traced back to as when Richard Nixon, the
37th president of the United States justified the U.S involvement in Vietnam.5
It is only safe to presume that the purpose of propaganda in history is to propagate one
and only one point of view while deliberately disregarding other points of views. They are
usually done with the intention of attracting their intended readership into believing that theirs
was the right one. What makes it dangerous is that, histories, based on propaganda can

4 Wang Gungwu, The Use of History (Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya, 1968), 14-15.
5 Gungwu, The Use of History, 6-7.

6
sometimes be hard to discern, that they may appear in a form of yet another didactic chronicle
with an acceptable amount of logical reasoning.
Lastly, to sum up, history based on propaganda can come in a form of two previous
methods in using history discussed earlier. They can be found in a paperback novel form neatly
shelved in the most visited bookstore in our vicinity. They can also be found in a long academic
dissertation, authored by academicians in the most popular university in our country.
According to Gungwu, the use of history in our country before the intervention of British
power has been just reasonable and adequate enough for such a small country like ours. It may
not be relatively perfect, but it does what it intended to do, in conformity with all three purposes
and the three methods we discussed earlier. We are talking about a period during which people
were allowed to derive their sense of identity and pride from a large collection of didactic
records of “Sejarah Melayu," (e.g. Misa Melayu, Tuhfat-al Nafis, Salasilah and state Hikayat).
Anyhow, most of these works are in the form of didactic narratives with neither desire
nor obligation to remain analytical. These narratives, nevertheless, are best used with the aim of
reviving historical consciousness among Malaysians. Gungwu said it best when he discusses the
use of history in the context of Sejarah Melayu, “What is important, in any case, is not to revive
their limited functions but to seek a continuity today with the society they portrayed then and
thus recognize the underlying social and political processes of our own age.”6
That continuity however, is believed to have been broken by the advent of British
colonialism. It can be said that, at that time, the course of history in our country was mostly
being dictated by myriads of occurrences in Europe. It was a period where historical writings,
notably on Southeast Asia however well-meaning they were, have mostly been written under the
influence of colonial framework.
Colonial framework is a tendency to suppose that the period of British colonialism in
Malaya, is rather the period one should first look upon when discussing the history of our
country. According to Gungwu, choosing to do so would mean to choose to ignore many of the
continuities of our cultures, politics and society. A continuity that dates back to the period where
our Sejarah Melayu was once being glorified as a primary source of our history and heritage, an
identity and the pride.

6
Ibid.

7
 The same holds true for how history was being taught in higher education in our country
before independence. University of Malaya and Raffles College (subsequently known as the
National University of Singapore in 1980)7 in Singapore are a good case in point. The majority
of the educators there were mostly foreigners, if not of British origin; thus, it is hard not to notice
their inclination to explain British intervention in Malaya in the imperial tradition.
There are indeed numerous factors that have contributed to the formation of such a
perspective. One of it can perhaps be traced back to how history was being taught in Europe,
especially in Britain in the 19th century. History was mainly taught to encourage private and
public morality, which is the second purpose of history, in which case, there may be a possibility
that the said purpose could have been abused to justify their imperial policies. According to the
author, we have to take into account the fact that British historians of that period were mostly
conscious of their national superiority.
Such possibility and probability ought not to be ignored. Historical writings on any of
their colonised regions in Southeast Asia could have potentially been written with the conscience
of an imperialist. Notwithstanding, credit must be given where credit is due, to all educators of
history at that time, given that they were in the most vulnerable position to form the most honest
historical perspective to begin with. Most of them were serving in-between two historic periods,
namely before independence and after the independence of Malaya. Anyhow, after the
independence of Malaya in 1957, historians all over the world were seen starting to deflect from
the colonial interpretations of Southeast Asian history.
A moment of reflection is best consumed with rather an endeavor to anticipate what lies
ahead of us, historians. How can we best make use of these discussed purposes and methods in
our times to the best of its potential? In the last few pages of The Use of History, Gungwu
reiterates the points he discussed earlier in his writing with regard to all three purposes and
methods in using history. The author has therefore suggested that the first purpose of history is
best used for nation building. The second one can be used most suitably when alerting the
masses of how significant it is to remain conscious of the origin of their country’s traditions,
laws, and institutions. The third kind is rather personal, philosophical and sometimes religious in

7
Guay Ee Ling, and Joanna HS Tan. "Raffles College." Raffles College. Accessed January 01, 2016.
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1797_2011-03-15.html.

8
nature; this is where history can be most sensibly used as a base to broaden one’s outlook on life
at this particular moment in time.
On methods of using history, the first method is best suited for the first purpose of
history, which is for nation building. Even so, it can still be applied to all three purposes
discussed earlier. The second method can also be applied to all three, but it could be way more
impactful if it is used as a foundation to measure our collective progress as humans. The third
method is commonly practiced to awaken chauvinistic emotions; it is a pseudo-history with a
clear-cut aspiration to convert one’s intended readership into believing into one’s own
chauvinistic cause, whatever the cause may be.
Gungwu has it right when he remarks that history, which is based on propaganda is not
history. Dedicated historians are obligated not only not to use it but to unmask it whenever they
encounter these sorts of histories. As so often in the past, propaganda was often resorted to when
the data used to construct history is flawed.
Nevertheless, here, upon discussing history and propaganda, one question came to mind.
If one of the said duties of a historian were to remain accurate and truthful, what would happen if
when such a finding turned out to be the very one the masses have always been reluctant to
accept? Only to find that once it has been intellectually disclosed, it will afterwards get to be
branded as propaganda, on the assumption that it may possess the capability of deconstructing
the very core of our religious traditions, federal constitution and the religion itself.
This raises the question about who gets to decide whether this or that history is in a form
of propaganda? Government bodies, the courts, the masses, intellectuals, and historians of
international repute themselves who happened to be in disagreement with the veracity of the said
finding? How can we be certain that these individuals and bodies with the power to arbitrate, are
not doing it to serve one’s own selfish interests? That is, by silencing historical writings that are
deemed to be propaganda, only then can they have windows of opportunity to further propagate
one’s own agenda.
Now, as a case in point, let us remind ourselves of Kassim Ahmad, a renowned
philosopher from Malaysia who was once charged at the Syariah High Court of Malaysia for

9
allegedly insulting Islam.8 His book “Hadith: A Reevaluation” remarked that the hadith, the so-
called prophetic traditions used by millions of Muslims worldwide as insubstantial and
inauthentic, let alone prophetical.
According to Kassim Ahmad, the authoritative corpus of hadith is believed to have been
fabricated and is in contradiction to the very purpose of the holy Quran.9 Furthermore, many of
them were believed to have mostly been written and compiled by historians and narrators two
hundred years after the death of Prophet Muhammad.10 It is only right to think that these hadiths
were clearly written by none other than propagandists themselves.
I’m certain that one will be amazed at how well-wrought the book is, amazed by the fact
that even though Kassim Ahmad is indisputably not a historian by profession, yet he succeeded
in exposing scores of pernicious influences of the hadith. If Kassim Ahmad were to be measured
by the Gungwu scale of dedicated historian, I’m therefore confident that Kassim Ahmad could
have rightly scored 10 out of 10. In actuality, none of that happened, he wasn’t eulogised for his
exceptionally well-written argumentative book, let alone having his views debated in an
intellectual manner. He was instead harassed, charged and humiliated by the religious authorities
and the Islamic courts of Malaysia.11
Another argument is, if I were to base myself on this premise, I can as well make the
following hypothesis that all works of literature of faith, namely the Quran and the Hadith, the
Bible, and the Torah, as a matter of fact, are a work of the propagandist. Any sane person of
sound mind will certainly get the idea that how unmistakably propagandised these sorts of
literature are. Since the existence of God itself is questionable,12 thus, it would be only fair to
assume that the author of all works of literature of faith above is but a propagandist himself or
herself.

8
LOOI SUE-CHERN. "I Will Fight Islamic Authorities till the End, Vows Kassim Ahmad - The
Malaysian Insider." I Will Fight Islamic Authorities till the End, Vows Kassim Ahmad - The Malaysian
Insider. Accessed January 17, 2016. http://goo.gl/U9P31A.
9
Kassim Ahmad, Hadith: A Re-evaluation (Kuala Lumpur : Universal Unity, 1977), 33-34.
10
Kassim Ahmad, Hadith: A Re-evaluation, 43-44.
11
Ida Lim. "After Civil Court Victory, Kassim Ahmad Hopes Jawi Will Drop Shariah Charges
(VIDEO)." After Civil Court Victory, Kassim Ahmad Hopes Jawi Will Drop Shariah Charges (VIDEO).
2015. Accessed January 17, 2016. http://goo.gl/CDqQ8q.
12
Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steven Soter, writers. "The Edge of Forever." In Cosmos: A Personal
Voyage. PBS. November 30, 1980. A short clip from episode 10.

10
 In the very last few pages of The Use of History, Gungwu applauds the conscious effort
taken by a new generation of historians with their multidisciplinary approach to the
understanding of history. They have since begun integrating several other academic disciplines
the likes of Social Sciences, Natural Science, Sociology, Economics, Geography and Science
Politics with the traditional means of historiography. With the emergence of this bold new
attitude, history that was once based on myth and old wives' tale can now easily be debunked.
There seems to be a new standard of historiography used by these new historians, any
interpretations, narrations and facts that are deemed to be historical are then expected to stand the
test of scientific reasoning.
To conclude, The Use of History has addressed a number of significant issues in relation
to purposes and methods in using history. It rapidly becomes clear that the use of history in our
country must be evaluated from time to time, to see if it does what it intended to do in
determining its effectiveness in facilitating historians and the masses alike towards nation
building. For this reason, it can be said that we are to constantly remind ourselves that in order to
progress constructively as a nation, we must first be conscious of our past successes and failures
as a nation. To know where we came from is to anticipate where would we be in the future.

11
 References
Rahman, Hj. Abdul. 2011. Pengantar Sejarah. Pulau Pinang: PPJJ USM.
Gungwu, Wang. 1968. The Use of History. Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya.
Tan, Guay Ee Ling & Joanna HS. 2015. "Raffles College." Raffles College. Prod. National Library Board
(NLB). November 21.
Ahmad, Kassim. 1997. Hadith: A Re-evaluation . Kuala Lumpur: Universal Unity.
SUE-CHERN, LOOI. 2015. News, Malaysia. January 18. Accessed January 17, 2016.
http://goo.gl/U9P31A.
ICOMOS international cultural tourism charter. 2002. "Principles and guidelines for managing tourism at
places of cultural and heritage significance."
Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, Steven Soter. 1980. Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Directed by Adrian Malone.
Performed by Carl Sagan.
Joseph, A L R. 2007. The Malaysian Bar. August 6. goo.gl/UrDYpM.
Lim, Ida. 2015. After civil court victory, Kassim Ahmad hopes Jawi will drop Shariah charges - See more
at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/after-civil-court-victory-kassim-ahmad-
hopes-jawi-will-drop-shariah-charges#sthash.To0HFvk5.dpuf. 12 21.
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/after-civil-court-victory-kassim-ahmad-
hopes-jawi-will-drop-shariah-charges.

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