Some notes on problems and prospects for oral history in Malaysia

Abstract

This brief paper sets out for discussion a few thoughts regarding oral history in Malaysia in the context of the theme of this panel. Becaue oral history is still very much in its infancy in Malaysia, it may be useful from the outset to make a few remarks on what this term means. This i s in order to provide a framework as a basis for discussing a subject which has sometimes been described as neither oral nor history. For the purpose of this paper, oral history is meant the tape recording of remininscenes about which the narrator can speak from first hand knowledge.