Show us what BTN teaches, says Kit Siang

By Clara Chooi - The Malaysian Insider

IPOH, Nov 29 – Critics charge that it is racist in nature, the government insists it is not. The big BTN argument is really unnecessary when a solution is so simple, according to DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang (pic)– make public what really goes on in the camps.

He challenged the Federal Government to reveal, through a public inquiry, what is taught during the controversial National Civics Bureau (Biro Tata Negara, or BTN) courses.

“Why not, if they have nothing to hide and claim that the courses do not incite racial hatred? Let it be publicly revealed,” he said in a press conference after the opening of the Perak DAP 15th annual convention here today.

Lim scoffed at the open denials made by Umno leaders that the courses were not racial in nature and did not invoke feelings of hatred amongst the races.

He said it was not so much the syllabus that contained such “racism” but the interactions and lectures given during the courses.

“It is not the syllabus but the interactions that spew out so much communal poison,” he said.

Lim urged the Umno leaders to stop their “double-speak” on the issue and end racial politics once and for all by conducting themselves as national leaders for all Malaysians.

He said leaders like Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and Datuk Seri Noh Omar, who had spoken out in defence of the BTN courses, were merely in denial of the truth.

“If they are incapable of behaving like true leaders, then they should scrap and bury the seven-month-old 1 Malaysia concept by the new Barisan Nasional.

“There is no doubt that these BTN courses, which incite racial hatred, are completely against the 1 Malaysia concept and this is why, after 52 years, the concept had to be mooted, because nation-building in the country was a failure,” said Lim.

He also lambasted the other BN component parties like the MCA, MIC and Gerakan for failing to come out in the open to rebut what their partners in Umno were saying in defence of the BTN.

“Do they really agree with what these leaders are saying in defence of the communal, seditious, racist and derisive courses in the BTN? Why have they kept silent?” he questioned.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng agreed with his father and said that the BTN courses took racism a step too far by telling the Malays to regard the Chinese as “Jews”.

“I think this is extremely disgusting and very obviously raises racial sentiments amongst the people. This is not 1 Malaysia.

“I sympathise with the Selangor government on this matter,” he said.

He added that the purpose of such courses should be to improve efficiency and the delivery system instead of talking about politics.