MalaysiaKini, Lively and engaging forum on merits of BTN, 24 Dec 2009

On 23 December 2009, I was in the audience of the forum on Biro Tatanegara: Patriotik atau Perkauman in PJ organised by the Selangor State Government. The venue was packed with people. I was happy that the Q and A session was a lively one with many audience members eager to express their views. Some were strongly for, some were strongly against BTN. As for me, I am against BTN courses due to its racist content and have criticised its racist content since 2005.

MalaysiaKini covered the BTN forum and here is their report:

Lively and engaging forum on merits of BTN

Aidila Razak
Dec 24, 09
3:05pm

Emotions ran high at a forum on the controversial National Civics Course (BTN) organised by the Selangor MB’s office at the Petaling Jaya Live Arts Centre yesterday.

Entitled ‘BTN: Patriotic or Racist?’ about150 people, consisting of former BTN participants from the various races and age groups to took part in the discussions.

Pakatan Rakyat Selangor ADUNs Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (left) and Amirudin Shari, who took credit for the ban on BTN courses in Selangor addressed the three-hour forum.

Other panel members included Malaysiakini columnist KJ John and writer and cultural activist, Eddin Khoo.

All the speakers were against the way the BTN is being implemented, stating that it has transgressed its initial intention of nation-building and is now redundant.

Also present at the forum were MPs Teresa Kok and Yusmadi Yusoff.

‘What’s wrong with loving my race?’

The participants managed to bring balance to the proceedings, with a significant number speaking out in support of the programme and refuting claims that it was racist in nature.

Among the arguments put forward was the fact that BTN syllabi only stated what is in the constitution, like Article 153 which states that “Malay privileges must be protected.”

A fiery Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz (below), a member of a group calling themselves the ‘ex-BTN Group’, said the courses provided room for dialogue and was not conducted in a top-down manner.

Nik Nazmi said he supported the teaching of the constitution, but felt that the syllabi is selective and did not offer a complete perspective of the constitution nor its history.

KJ John concurred: “It must be understood in context of the whole constitution. For example it took days of studying the constitution to understand why Islam is written as ‘the religion’ and not ‘the official religion.”

Amirudin added that the constitution is not a static document, and that it should be constantly discussed in order to stay true to the “spirit” in which it was written.

Another Malay member of the audience, who had attended the course thrice, questioned the problem with loving one’s own race.

“It is all about perception. For me, I came out of BTN motivated to do better for my race, without hating or having to deny others their rights,” he said.

Amirudin(right) responded saying that while it is not wrong to love your own race, his fear is that the BTN has gone overboard.

“My fear is that BTN encourages people to love only their race, that it comes to a point that people would say, ‘He is corrupt, but he is Malay so it is okay’,” he said.

Giving an example of blatant racist analogies, he related his own experience as a participant when he was told a story of a Malay mother working for a Chinese trader, whose child was eventually eaten by his dog.

‘BTN founded to stop Anwar’

Like Amirudin who likened the BTN issue to opening ‘Pandora’s box’, Eddin felt that the issue is just a symptom of a larger problem, like the failure of our education system, much to the delight of the audience.

One person who had attended BTN in 1976 felt that the course had been racist from the onset, said that the fact that it exists is proof that our education system has failed.

“Even in 1976 it was used as psychological warfare. We were set against one another so those in power will remain in power,” he said.

Eddin said that BTN is an exercise in “reconstructing history” by differentiating the historical experiences of each race.

“It is not as simple as whether it is patriotic or racist. If we trace the history of the BTN, we will understand that there are many spillovers, chief of which is the issue of education,” he said.

Indeed, Amirudin said BTN founder Johari Abdul had told him that its purpose was to control the uprising that was being led by then student leader Anwar Ibrahim and his cohorts in the 1970s.

KJ John felt that the programme, initiated in 1974 by the Youth Ministry, with ex-Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi as the secretary general, was a reaction to May 13, 1969.

‘Leave us alone’

Regardless of its origin, Eddin believes that the BTN had no place in Malaysian society, then or today.

“Society in Malaysia has always been plural and our roots are cosmopolitan, so the BTN in essence has no role to play and is a waste of tax payers’ money,” he said.

Supporting his view, members of the audience spoke out, saying that they did not need the BTN to teach them how to behave.

“I don’t need BTN to be patriotic, nor do I need BTN to make me a racist,” said one man.
Another who related his BTN experience as a government scholar said: “My course-mates and I went in as a family because as children of teachers and soldiers, we all came from the same economic backgrounds.

“But we were made to feel different from each other and came out completely dejected. Just leave us alone, we are already patriotic because we are all Malaysian,” he said.