We should not be surprised when a newspaper article makes a judgemental error, especially when it overstates a statistical finding. The headline was this: Orang muda buta sejarah! (Young people are ignorant of history!). And yet when I actually read what it was about, I find this distressing remark not to be taken too seriously. Yes, they have found that few people are ignorant of our first Prime Minister, or the exact date of Merdeka. So why shouldn't we take their conclusions too seriously?
First, out of 28 million people who call themselves Malaysians, only 200 were chosen to be sampled, or at least presented in this frontpage news report - that's 0.00071429% of the represented population. Well of course it's impossible to involve everyone - and that's what sampling is for - but at least have the humility to acknowledge the limits to their findings.
Instead, the Utusan 'researchers' have concluded that 'Young people today are ignorant of history; are not interested to remember the past; have no interest in general knowledge; are too forward looking!'
It is always very tempting to conclude that everyone in the room is a baby, when only as far as we have observed, everytime someone comes out of the room, it's a baby. Of course, Utusan has found that some Malaysians are ignorant of their own history - that's not surprising at all. However, what they have not found - hence, should not have concluded from their findings - is that such result from a non-randomized tiny sample population can be generalized to all Malaysians.
I know, our Minister of Education has recently announced that History is a must-pass subject in SPM. It doesn't follow that we must denigrate Malaysian youth today - which include, yours truly - just because a few jokers have forgotten, or are naturally ignorant of their own history.
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