Expose
'It's okay to wave the keris'
Formed by PMO, Biro Tata Negara was to promote national
values but instead preaches Malay supremacy to university
students, creating a new public furore.
Sep 8, 2008
Compiled by Littlespeck.com
There seems no end to problems confronting Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his promised concept of a multi-racial
Malatysia. Hardly has the threat of opposition leader,
Anwar Ibrahim's threat to overthrow him resolved, another
problem has cropped up.
An
e-mail being circulating in Malaysia's active blogosphere
by "A Worried Student" has
raised a new controversy surrounding the Biro Tatanegara
(BTN), a programme fully
by the public and under the control of his Office.
From what Littlespeck understands, it runs indoctrination
courses in public universities. For example, non-Malay
government (MARA-sponsored) scholars are required to go
through a five-day BTN camp, which is mandatory before
they are sent overseas.
The non-Malays are segregated and given lectures on the
history of the country and how the immigration of the Chinese
and Indians had taken place. And finally how the Chinese
and Indians were given citizenship. The Malays, too, have
their own similar sessions.
"It is supposed to make Malaysians better citizens,
which is a good cause," said one participant, 'but
somewhere the racial elements took over, that shows how
much race remains Malaysia's biggest threat to stability
because underneath inspiring speeches are acts that promotes
disunity.
The controversial e-mail is only one of several anecdotes
that have emerged about these courses.
Calling
the BTN "a Trojan Horse in the Prime Minister's
Department," Democratic Action Party (DAP) leader,
Mr. Lim Kit Siang wants it closed for "undermining
national unity."
An
'outraged parent" wrote: "The
instructors blatantly told them that they should not
question the rights
and privileges of the Malays as the non-Malays should be
thankful that they were given citizenship status and a
place to stay on their soil.
"My
daughter together with the other non-Malay students was
shocked and went back to their
dormitories depressed.
And to the Malay students, the instructors told them to
be aware of this fact and not to mix too freely with the
non-Malays.
"A
Malay friend of my daughter came back crying to the dormitory
saying that she could not
take the racist
position taken by the government authority. My daughter
then began questioning the bumiputra policy and was disgusted
with such blatant indoctrination.
"This
incident has also made the students harbour anger and
resentment. Their fear for the authorities
and
losing their scholarships made them keep their cool. I
am not exaggerating here - ask all the JPA students to
write in anonymously and you will know the truth.
"These
are young minds being polluted with racism. Tens of thousands
of students have gone
through this programme
and more will be attending it in the future.
"So
can you blame them when they exhibit their racist tendencies
when in authority? How could
the JPA allow such
a syllabus for the cream of the nation, who will one day
be entrusted to implement government policies fairly?.."
The
controversial e-mail by "A Worried Student" who
said he attended the courses on July 6 at the UiTM (university)
Shah Alam.
http://educationmalaysia.blogspot.com/2008/07/btn-brainwashing.html
),
"..There were three separate talks, the first one
being titled "Pendidikan", second one titled "Ancaman
Keselamatan Negara" and the third one titled, "Patriotisma"...
"..
The first speaker, Dr. Idris bin Md. Noor was was supposed
to talk about education as
that was the title
of his speech, but the content was far different. ..In
less than a few minutes, he suddenly touched social contract
in Malaysia...
He criticised it with all his heart, saying no one should
discuss about it as it is unquestionable. Fair enough,
I thought at first. Freedom of speech right?
"...While he was browsing through his files on the
laptop which was projected on the big screen, it was no
surprise for me that I saw files entitled "Ketuanan
Melayu" (Malay supremacy). He also then went on about
the Malay's obsession with magic and ghosts.
"He
said that (they're) all wrong beliefs through the perspective
of Islam because if they
really could use
magic and other dark arts for fighting, then they should
kill Karpal Singh (DAP Chairman) with it.
"..
He then started to become more impassioned in his speech
towards the end, like someone
campaigning for
a political seat yet failed, and resorted to a multi-purpose
hall with bumiputra students. He said so many atrocious
things that I will list them down in point form.
- Explained how the Malays aren't racist but others are
racist towards us.
- Bangsa Malaysia (Malaysia race) does not exist, neither
does Malaysian Chinese and Indians, only in the strict
Malay, Chinese and Indians. (Interestingly, behind a booklet
provided to us, one of the objectives of the programme
is to produce a -"Bangsa Malaysia". Obviously,
he was ignorant).
- Bahasa Malaysia (Malaysian language) does not exist,
it is Bahasa Melayu (Malay language).
- Nothing wrong with waving the Keris.
- Bumiputra hanya 55% di Malaysia, (Sons of the Soil make
up 55% of the population), (they should) give birth to
more people!
- The University and Colleges Act was partly made to ensure
a Malay Vice-Chancellor in Universities which should be
the way.
- Blogs are "berdosa" or sinful.
- Christians will not like Muslims.
But that isn't even the best part. The best part is, he
showed a short film on the dangers of Zionism and the illegal
occupation of Palestine which was probably the only part
of the speech I agreed with and I thought to myself this
could be the only fact of the speech.
But surprise, surprise, at the end of the film, there
was a montage of so-called Zionist supporters with the
pictures of Anwar Ibrahim, Tian Chua, Teresa Kok, (opposition
politicians) Hishamuddin Rais and Ezam Md. Nor (who recently
defected from Anwar's party to UMNO).
Then a question popped up in my head. Is Ezam still a
Zionist supporter since he is in UMNO now? Does that mean
the government has a Zionist supporter as well as the opposition?
And expectedly, the speaker was being more anti-semitic
than anti-zionist.
He
even explained how the Pakatan Rakyat (Mr. Anwar's opposition
coalition) ruled states are all
going down the
drain and he says, "this is what you get if you vote
for the opposition!"...
This was supposed to be a speech touching on education
and look how it ended up. It did not even smell anything
of education. It was a speech that was not meant for national
unity at all. How could it be when you spread hatred?
I
could only sit and ponder quietly while all this was
happening.
But the speech was not the saddest
part. The
saddest part was that the majority of students in the hall
were cheering him on."
Written by A Worried Student
Lim
Kit Siang wrote: "I
received a call from a mother two weeks ago. She told
me that her daughter is a government
school teacher
and has recently been scheduled for a training course.
"During
the training session, a lecturer denied the citizenship
of non-Malays and called them outsiders. He
then pointed at a Chinese student and said: "The country
belongs to Malays, you do not deserve anything." It
is not necessary for me to repeat other insulting and belittling
words.
"All
the Indian and Chinese students were angry and sad after
listening to the lecturer's remarks. However, they
dared not retort on the spot.
"By
evening, the daughter could not stand any longer. She
called her mother and complained tearfully.
"From the mother's voice when she was telling me about
her daughter's experience, I could feel her agitation and
anger.
Then, she hung up. "
The
DAP Ipoh Timor MP disclosed a letter from
a
parent. In the letter, the writer said her daughter has
been successful in getting a scholarship from the Public
Service Department. It is compulsory for her daughter to
attend a course.
The course lecturer was from Biro Tata Negara. He told
his students that non-Malays should not question Malay
privileges. Instead, they must be grateful that Malays
give them citizenship and a place to stay.
He even instructed Malay students not to make friends
with non-Malays. I think you can imagine how non-Malay
students felt at that moment. Even some Malay students
have been frightened and cried...
Such extreme racist remarks have repeatedly been heard
in various governmental courses and schools at all levels.
How many young souls have been hurt and how many enlightening
brains have been poisoned?" Source: Sin Chew Daily.
Compiled by Littlespeck.com
