Media Statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Friday, 4^th December 2009: 

Replace the BTN, which spent RM550 million in past ten years to incite racial hatred and animosity to create more racists than Malaysian nationalists, with an independent non-partisan institution answerable only to Parliament

Biro Tata Negara (BTN) spent RM550 million in the past ten years from 2000 to 2009 to incite racial hatred and animosity to create more racists than Malaysian nationalists and was a major push factor for the brain drain driving Malaysia’s best and brightest from Malaysian shores in the past decade.

The annual budget for the BTN in the past ten years, totaling RM548 million, is as follows:

For next year of 2010, RM62.5 million has been budgeted for BTN.

These are huge sums of money. How can there be justification for the expenditure by such vast sums of money for an agency to continue its anti-national agenda to divide Malaysians with its divisive, racist and seditious indoctrination programmes, as further testified by student council representatives from several public universities yesterday.

University of Malaya Students Council president, Mohd Ridzuan Mohammad, described the BTN course as “unsuitable” as it “incites racial sentiments and does not help provide better representation to the student body"

University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), student council member Hisyamuddin Che Ali said Faculty of Islamic Studies complained that racial sentiments were fanned at BTN courses…for example, they were told that the Chinese are lording over the country.

The RM550 million spent by the government on BTN have undermined nation building and national unity, resulting in the nation losing greater international competitiveness as it is a major push factor in driving the best and brightest Malaysians out of the country – contributing to Malaysia’s lagging in economic development to neighbouring countries in the past decade.

If the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is serious about national reforms to “recatalyse” the country with the 1Malaysia concept, he should have no hesitation in closing down the BTN with its racist and anti-national agenda and replace it with n independent non-partisan national civics institution which is completely independent of the government-of-the-day and answerable to Parliament for its curriculum and management to foster national unity and Malaysian consciousness.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor