COMMENT | After we’re done laughing, comes the grim reality. By now, everyone has heard of the fantastical claim that the Romans learned shipbuilding from the Malays.

But this is merely the tip of the iceberg of a far bigger malaise – the rewriting of history for “nationalistic” narratives with barely disguised racial slants.

After associate professor Dr Solehah Yaacob, an Arabic-language lecturer from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), made her outrageous assertion, a small cottage industry emerged to poke fun at this.

TikToker Ammirul Azahar declared, “Yes, it’s true. Because the Romans were actually Malays who lived in Rompin, Pahang!”

When I shared Ammirul’s video on social media, his deadpan demeanour made some people actually believe he was serious – sigh, the art of satire is lost on many Malaysians. So, just in case people missed his joke, Ammirul added, “The Greeks were also Malays. They came from Gerik, Perak.”

I myself can add further “proof” that the Romans were from Malaysia – why, we have two...