COMMENT | When a nation begins to fear its own history, it is not history that is in danger - it is truth.

The recent decision by the Home Ministry to ban two books published by Gerakbudaya - “Memoir Shamsiah Fakeh: Dari AWAS ke Rejimen Ke-10” and “Komrad Asi (Rejimen 10): Dalam Denyut Nihilisme Sejarah” - must be viewed with deep concern by all Malaysians who value historical truth, intellectual freedom, and national maturity.

Both books were reportedly prohibited on the grounds that they contain elements and ideologies of communism that could undermine public harmony and order.

Yet such reasoning, while superficially defensible, collapses under careful scrutiny when weighed against the imperatives of historical scholarship and the public’s right to understand its own past in all its complexity.

At the centre of this...