DURHAM: More than 30,000 manuscripts — the legacy of the late governor-general of Malaya, Malcolm MacDonald — containing correspondence on the aborted Malayan Union proposal, are being digitised and will soon be made public for free.
The digitisation of the documents, containing his correspondence dating back to the 1940s, is the result of a collaboration between the University of Durham, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) and the National Archives of Malaysia.
Efforts to digitise them are underway at the University of Durham and are expected to be finished next month.
They will be made public via UniSZA’s online portal.
The collaboration, with funding from the National Archives of Malaysia, means that the documents will be available online for the first time, enabling Southeast Asian researchers to study the politician, including his role in Malaysia’s history.
MacDonald, the son of former British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, was one of the founders of the University of Malaya and its first chancellor.
He died in 1981, aged 79. In 1986, his manuscripts were bequeathed to the University of Durham, where he was chancellor.
Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said the manuscripts were valuable as they marked a period of Malaysian history.
“They carry exquisite value to Malaysia as they documented the history of a period of many changes, including the aborted Malayan Union proposal and the progress of Malaya towards independence despite the emergence of communism.”
Maszlee, who was on a two-day working visit to the University of Durham, was presented with a hard drive in a symbolic handover of the digitised version manuscripts by the university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Stuart Corbridge.
Maszlee was accompanied by representatives from UniSZA and the Education Malaysia office in London.
Present was Deputy Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik.
The University of Durham is Maszlee’s alma mater, where in 2007 he obtained a PhD in Public Policy Studies.
“When I informed Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad of this trip, he instructed me to find the verbatim records of the Malayan Union discussions, believed to be in the collection of the British National Archives. If such records can be digitised as well, it would an invaluable addition to the nation’s history.
“I view the collaboration as a privilege to Malaysia, particularly to UniSZA and the National Archives of Malaysia which had worked hard through all stages of negotiations with the University of Durham in bringing this piece of history back to its homeland,” he said.
“We need a better narrative for history and its presentation. The digitisation of the manuscripts is just a start.
“We will make learning history more interactive with augmented reality technology.
“By using artificial intelligence, the manuscripts can be a doorway for researchers to see the past.”
In an ongoing effort to collect manuscripts for digitisation, Maszlee said UniSZA had contacted the British Library and the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, as well as other universities, including one in Morocco.
UniSZA Deputy Vice-Chancellor Associate Professor Dr Mohd Afandi Salleh said the university was focusing on manuscripts which were connected to Malaya and the Islamic world.
He hoped to make UniSZA a hub for the largest collection of digitised manuscripts.
“We’re collecting manuscripts which have been digitised. We have visited the Al Akhawayn University and have reached an agreement for the digitisation of the oldest manuscripts in the world.
“There are more than 4,000 manuscripts there.
“This is one of the results of the negotiations between the education minister and the government of Morocco.”
He said the digitised manuscripts could be accessed as early as October.