COMMENT | The recent banning of two books published by Gerakbudaya, “Memoir Shamsiah Fakeh: Dari Awas ke Rejimen ke-10” and “Komrad Asi (Rejimen 10): Dalam Denyut Nihilisme Sejarah”, is deeply unsettling.

As an educator, it feels personal. It raises a question that is hard to ignore: What happens when access to knowledge and the difficult parts of our past are taken away?

These are not just books. They are attempts to tell a version of Malaysia’s past that is not always comfortable.

They engage with narratives linked to the Malayan Communist Party, including the life of Shamsiah Fakeh, a figure who does not sit easily within our official narratives.

She was many things at once...