COMMENT | Former minister Khairy Jamaluddin, in a snippet from his podcast “Keluar Sekejap”, has raised an uncomfortable but necessary question.

At a time when public confusion over Malaysian history is becoming more visible, and when doubtful claims can capture public imagination more easily than careful scholarship, historians and academics cannot afford to remain distant from public debate.

What, after all, is the social purpose of a scholar if knowledge circulates only among academics, far from the public that sustains our institutions?

As a scholar from a public university...