KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 — Tourism Melaka is taking back its guidebooks after they were found to contain multiple factual errors about the state.
Frenchman Serge Jardin took to Facebook to post a long list of inaccuracies he found in the guidebook.
Among them are assertions that the European invasion happened back in the 14th century, when in fact the European colonists only made their appearance in 1511 or the 16th century; another assertion is that Melaka is 750 years old, when it has existed for roughly 624 years.
The guidebook also states that the Malacca Club was only built after independence, when it was built in 1912; and that Hang Li Poh married Sultan Muzaffar Shah — she married Sultan Mansur Shah.
Jardin had been a tour guide and tour agency operator in Malaysia in the 1980s, settling in his wife’s home state of Melaka and has authored several books about Malaysia and Melaka in particular including Malaisie, uncertain regard and Malacca Style, earning him a reputation as a historian and geographer of the state.
Tourism Melaka responded to the statement on Facebook, making a public apology and confirmed it would immediately halt the distribution of the guidebooks and that it would review their contents.
The tourism body also told The Star, “We view the matter seriously,” and confirmed it will issue the publisher of the guidebook a show-cause letter and summon it for an explanation.
However, Jardin’s response to the statement is interesting: “Thank you for your reactivity. For your information, I already corrected the same mistakes, on the same page, the fourth edition, dated 2020, no action was taken.”
Tourism Melaka has not responded to the comment as of press time.
