BTN – Brainwashing The Nation (Part 1)
By Eyes Wide Open
“There exists a causal relationship between a free press and democracy. Democratic institutions degenerate into dictatorship in the absence of an independent media.”
Abstract from: The role of the independent media in Africa’s change to democracy
Long-suffering African nations have long woken up to the fact that for real democracy to work, the press has to be independent so that it can act as a check on politicians.
Malaysia, however, is hell-bent on heading in the opposite direction at maximum speed. With most private media playing the role of subservient eunuchs to their political masters, how is real democracy going to exist in our country?
In the absence of a free media playing the watchdog role, Malaysian politicians are given free hand to do and say as they wish without fear of being exposed.
Just look at this pure lie that the DPM uttered during the Bagan Pinang bye-election campaign:
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Muhyiddin: BN has united the various races
(Bernama) – PORT DICKSON: Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the government will not allow any quarter to disrupt racial unity in the country and will promptly act against those who played up sensitive racial issues.
He said since the Barisan Nasional (BN) governed the country, it had managed to unite the various races which had different cultures, customs and religions.
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Our DPM’s face must be made of Teflon – how can he say that without batting an eyelid?. We the people have still not forgotten the keris, the cow head, nor the UITM protests, among others.
Aren’t all these incidents blatant expressions of UMNO’s Ketuanan Melayu doctrine, designed to teach the non-bumis to “sedar diri” of their place in the nation?
It is very unfortunate that the Malaysian MSM is being used to forward UMNO’s doctrine aggressively among the Malay population. But the MSM is not the biggest culprit – they merely play the supporting role to reinforce the message.
The real indoctrination of the nation is done by another government machinery, whose existence and infrastructre are widely known but whose operations are largely secretive. And the most unfortunate fact is that their primary target is the youth of our nation.
I’m talking about the Biro Tatanegara (BTN).
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He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future! (Adolf Hitler, speech at the Reichsparteitag, 1935 )
The BTN is a government agency in the Prime Minister’s Department and answers directly to the PM. This agency’s organisation and powers enable them to hold the nation’s civil servants and govt scholars by the balls.
This is because BTN courses are compulsory for all students of public institute of higher learning, government scholarship holders and civil servants. Failure to attend or pass the BTN courses would jeopardise their career prospects, academic assessments or aid/scholarship approvals.
In addition, the BTN also conducts courses for GLCs and the private sector as well as organising public seminars, forums workshops, etc. That works out to perhaps tens of thousands of participants per year (we have to rely on educated guesses as there are no official public record of attendance statistics).
Multiply this by the BTN’s 35 years in existence, we can begin to marvel at the reach that the BTN has in the country!
Despite their immense control and influence over our nation’s youth, there is no public record of the BTN’s course contents. Even the course descriptions on the official BTN website say little of what is really covered in the syllabus. In fact, the contents of BTN lectures are classified under the Official Secrets Act!
No one is allowed to record the sessions and course participants are carefully screened before they are allowed into the lecture hall. All cameras, handphones, mp3 players, etc have to be left at the door and any written materials are only given out inside the room and every single piece has to be returned when participants leave the hall.
Why all the secrecy? Anything so hush-hush surely invites suspicion.
It also doesn’t help that the BTN’s statement that it aims achieve its objectives by conducting programmes that involve:
– Attitude change, character development and realising the culture of excellence based on a value system
– Fostering awareness and realisation among the citizenry about the importance of attitude change by experiencing and planting noble values, as well as through exposing and centering the self towards character change as the basis to achieve excellence as a nation
– Experiencing values that are based on realisation of God, co-existence and the realisation of our responsibilities that permeates from the self, to the family, organisations, society and country.
(*all emphasis my own-EWO)
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“Propaganda tries to force a doctrine on the whole people.” Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1926).
By their own words, the BTN aims to manipulate a complete change of attitude in its participants – beginning with convincing participants that they need an attitude change, then directing the participants along the pre-chosen path of attitude change, to conducting attitude changing activities itself, and finally encouraging the participants to permeate the entire nation with their new attitude.
Now, programmes to facilitate attitude change are nothing new. It is conducted by companies who want to upgrade their staff competence, by religious bodies who want to upgrade their adherents’ faith, or by motivational speakers to upgrade people’s effectiveness in life.
But in all these efforts, most participants want to attend because they can upgrade themselves in the areas offered. It is usually bottom-up participation.
In the case of the BTN, attendance is compulsory. Participants have to attend or face the consequences – this is top-down compulsion. Which means that it is not the people’s desire for attitude change that drives the program, but the government’s desire to change the attitudes of people to conform to its own ideals.
The question is – what kind of attitude does the government want in the people? What attitude is so important to them that they need a large organisation directly under the purview of the Prime Minister himself to ensure that this attitude permeates the citizenry?
