BTN foiling nation-building, says Kit Siang
(Free Malaysia Today) – DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang has urged the government to shut down the controversial Biro Tata Negara (BTN) under the Prime Minister’s Department, saying its “brainwashing propaganda courses’ is a major obstacle in nation-building.
The call comes as the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government imposed a ban on students at its universities and state employees from attending BTN courses, the first time any government has done so.
Opposition members have long accused the BTN of conducting courses to instill youths and civil servants with hatred against the opposition under the guise of promoting nationalism.
Although several parties who attended the courses have attested to this in the past, the BTN courses have continued to be a corner stone of the Barisan Nasional machinery to “educate’ people” on the country’s political landscape.
The debate on the government-run loyalty programme has forced the Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to wade in and deny that the courses are aimed to shore up support for Barisan.
The opposition remain unconvinced, stressing that the courses offered teach only outright loyalty to the the ruling party particularly Umno.
