Malaysia’s controversial national education programme conducted by its National Civics Bureau – the Biro Tata Negara or BTN has come under fire again for its racist agenda to promulgate the concept of “Ketuanan Melayu” or Malay superiority.
The programme is intended to instill nationalistic values and patriotism in university students on public scholarships and civil servants. The BTN is under the charge of the Prime Minister’s Department.
The Selangor state government controlled by the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition has banned its civil servants, employees of state subsidiaries and students at state-owned education institutions from attending any BTN courses.
Selangor state executive council member Dr Halimah Ali said described BTN programmes as “indoctrination by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government”.
“The courses promote racism and my own children who have attended BTN have been given booklets that encourage hate towards the opposition. The programmes are not positive to young minds, and are a waste of money which could have used to foster real unity,” she said.
The camp would usually take place during the weekends. Students would have to register early in the morning and the programme would last the whole day.
Malaysian Insider journalist Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani wrote that he has learn the “meaning of hate” from the BTN course during which a speaker said that the Chinese community were “the Jews of Asia” and were just itching to take over when Malays were disunited and broken.
According to Asrul, the speaker also revealed a greater Chinese conspiracy where the Chinese Malaysians were working together with Singapore to topple the Malay government.
“Do you want to become like the Malays in Singapore?” he asked.
About 15 per cent of Singapore’s population are Malays. Singapore was once part of the Malaysian Federation between the years 1963 to 1965.
After Singapore was separated from Malaysia in August 1965, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman offered Malays in Singapore land in Johor should they want to relocate there. Few took up the offer.
Over the years, Malaysian leaders such as Tun Dr Mahathir had consistently harped on the “plight” of the ethnic Malays in Chinese-dominated Singapore.
Surprisingly, though Malays in Malaysia are given special privileges under the government’s affirmative action plan the New Economic Policy (NEP), few Malays in Singapore have migrated to Malaysia.
On the contrary, countless of Malaysian Chinese flocked to find work in Singapore with many of them becoming Singapore citizens, leading to a brain drain for Malaysia.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Najib Razak noted that half the number of medical specialists at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital are Malaysians during his recent visit to attend the APEC Summit.
Malaysia’s Chinese now constitutes only 25 per cent of the population, down from 40 per cent in the 1960s.
Many of Singapore’s first-generation leaders are born in Malaysia such as its former deputy Prime Minister Dr Toh Chin Chye (Taiping, Perak), Finance Minister Goh Keng Swee (Malacca) and Home Affairs Minister Ong Pang Boon (Kuala Lumpur).
Singapore’s present health minister Mr Khaw Boon Wan was born in Penang. The CEO of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings and the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong hails from Kuala Lumpur.
The programme is intended to instill nationalistic values and patriotism in university students on public scholarships and civil servants. The BTN is under the charge of the Prime Minister’s Department.
The Selangor state government controlled by the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition has banned its civil servants, employees of state subsidiaries and students at state-owned education institutions from attending any BTN courses.
Selangor state executive council member Dr Halimah Ali said described BTN programmes as “indoctrination by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government”.
“The courses promote racism and my own children who have attended BTN have been given booklets that encourage hate towards the opposition. The programmes are not positive to young minds, and are a waste of money which could have used to foster real unity,” she said.
The camp would usually take place during the weekends. Students would have to register early in the morning and the programme would last the whole day.
Malaysian Insider journalist Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani wrote that he has learn the “meaning of hate” from the BTN course during which a speaker said that the Chinese community were “the Jews of Asia” and were just itching to take over when Malays were disunited and broken.
According to Asrul, the speaker also revealed a greater Chinese conspiracy where the Chinese Malaysians were working together with Singapore to topple the Malay government.
“Do you want to become like the Malays in Singapore?” he asked.
About 15 per cent of Singapore’s population are Malays. Singapore was once part of the Malaysian Federation between the years 1963 to 1965.
After Singapore was separated from Malaysia in August 1965, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman offered Malays in Singapore land in Johor should they want to relocate there. Few took up the offer.
Over the years, Malaysian leaders such as Tun Dr Mahathir had consistently harped on the “plight” of the ethnic Malays in Chinese-dominated Singapore.
Surprisingly, though Malays in Malaysia are given special privileges under the government’s affirmative action plan the New Economic Policy (NEP), few Malays in Singapore have migrated to Malaysia.
On the contrary, countless of Malaysian Chinese flocked to find work in Singapore with many of them becoming Singapore citizens, leading to a brain drain for Malaysia.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Najib Razak noted that half the number of medical specialists at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital are Malaysians during his recent visit to attend the APEC Summit.
Malaysia’s Chinese now constitutes only 25 per cent of the population, down from 40 per cent in the 1960s.
Many of Singapore’s first-generation leaders are born in Malaysia such as its former deputy Prime Minister Dr Toh Chin Chye (Taiping, Perak), Finance Minister Goh Keng Swee (Malacca) and Home Affairs Minister Ong Pang Boon (Kuala Lumpur).
Singapore’s present health minister Mr Khaw Boon Wan was born in Penang. The CEO of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings and the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong hails from Kuala Lumpur.
