The Malaysian Insider

UPDATED

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 — Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz has announced the Cabinet has agreed to revamp Biro Tata Negara (BTN) courses but Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin continues to defend the programme that the opposition allege promotes hate.

Muhyiddin also challenged the DAP's Lim Kit Siang to see for himself if the programme promoted racial hatred as alleged.

But separately Nazri disclosed that the Chief Secretary to the Government had been instructed to oversee BTN’s revamp.

Nazri, speaking to reporters in Parliament lobby, said the recent Cabinet meeting saw it necessary to do away with BTN co-curriculum which government leaders, including the prime minister, saw was racially divisive and destructive.

“We agree to revamp BTN because the co-curriculum is against Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1 Malaysia concept,” said Nazri.

“It’s a decision in line with the 1 Malaysia concept so the programmes must be (racially) inclusive and not divisive for the Malaysian people,” stressed the minister.

The programme has come under fire from various groups, branding it a tool to spread racist propaganda.

Recent weeks have seen the Barisan Nasional-led federal government cornered and forced to fend off opposition assault on BTN programmes.

While the government insists BTN courses are meant to instil patriotism in the participants, testimonials by former attendees indicate otherwise — that they are instead used to maintain Malay support for Umno through cultivating racial hatred and concepts like “Ketuanan Melayu” (Malay supremacy).

These testimonials have been used as fodder by PR leaders to demand for BTN’s closure.

The PR-led Selangor government have already imposed a ban on its civil servants and students within its state-run educational institutions from attending BTN courses, while Penang — another PR- governed state — is said to be considering similar action.

But the hawks in Umno, through Malay-based dailies like Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia, have moved to defend BTN and attack its critics as “traitors” who are trying to politicise the issue.

Najib’s No 2, Muhyiddin, has also defended BTN courses — a move that has given their political rivals more opportunity to disrupt Najib’s attempt to regain lost non-Malay support.

Nazri, however, defended Muhyiddin, saying the media had misquoted him.

“What he meant is BTN as a department is good but we have to change the curriculum because now (there) is 1 Malaysia. The curriculum cannot be focusing on one racial group," he said.

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