COMMUNISM as a theory as well as what kleptocracy is should be taught in schools so that students can understand the country’s past, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

Malaysians should have an understanding of these topics so that they can learn from the past and how to move forward, he added.

“We have to understand what is communism. We do not want to promote the understanding of communists.

“But, we need to know what is a communist, what is a capitalist, (what is) democracy (and) kleptocracy,” he told reporters at a press conference at the Parliament lobby today. 

He was asked by reporters if Putrajaya would support revamping the school syllabus to include communism. The issue arose out of a forum yesterday on ‘Should we rewrite our history textbooks”.

At the forum, activist Fadiah Nadwa Fikri had suggested that Malaysia should include in its school syllabus the history of the Communist Party of Malaysia in opposing the British.

Dr Mahathir’s mention of kleptocracy is likely in reference to the term widely used by Pakatan Harapan to refer to the previous government under Najib Razak which is blamed for various corruption scandals involving public agencies as well as state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Dr Mahathir, however, said that introducing these subjects to the syllabus would have to be studied first. – July 30, 2018.