Describing it as a manipulation of facts, Asyraf claimed this was intentionally done by Pakatan Harapan (PH) when it was in government to “sow the seeds” of the “Malaysian Malaysia” ideology.

He said it was a discreet effort to convince students that socialism and communism were not all that bad and that they had a role in fighting for Malaya’s independence.

“What’s more saddening is that there are elements of slander accusing Malays of being subordinate to the Japanese colonialists in fighting the communists.

“In a subtle and discreet way, the PH government has made the communists and Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) look like heroes and independence fighters who deserve recognition,” he said in a Facebook post today.

A section of one of the pages of the textbook said the MPAJA was the biggest anti-Japanese movement in Malaya at the time.

“The rising anti-Japan movement drove the Japanese army to utilise army or police teams comprising Malays to fight the MPAJA. The Japanese army’s actions caused racial tension later,” said the section, which Asyraf included a picture of in his Facebook post.

Asyraf said Umno’s senior minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, had been informed about the matter and would raise the issue in the next Cabinet meeting.

FMT has reached out to the education ministry, former education minister Maszlee Malik and his then deputy, Teo Nie Ching, for comment.