Some participants at the ‘A People’s History of Malayan Emergency’ raised their voice in protest forcing the moderator, Imran Rasid, to step in to ease the tension.

“Please sir, we only want to have a dialogue,” Imran told a heckler. “You’ll have a chance, there is no problem. We have regulations. Let the panellist finish first.”

Imran had to repeatedly state that the audience could ask questions during the allocated time.

He also pointed out that the discussions today would be about history textbooks, and that discussions on the Malayan Emergency period had been carried out yesterday.

Imran said that if anyone in the audience was disappointed by what was said by any panellist, they could bring it up with them later.

The panellists were graphic artist and activist Fahmi Reza and lawyer Fadiah Nadwa Fikri. They explained that the forum sought to raise questions about why other Malaysian historical facts and perspectives, such as those about left-wing issues and personalities, were not included in textbooks and discussions.

Later on, after things calmed down, everyone started asking questions calmly and one of the hecklers even apologised for his earlier outburst.

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