KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — There is no need to shut down the National Civics Bureau (BTN) despite the clear racial slant in a collection of slides that were previously uploaded on the agency’s own website, MCA secretary-general Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said today.
He said instead of closing down the controversial bureau, it would be better to change its current syllabus — which he acknowledged makes participants more “narrow-minded” — to one that is moer inclusive.
“BTN has its role (to play), but that is not the way to do it...something went wrong, (it was) mismanaged or the approach is wrong,” Ong was quoted as saying by news portal Malaysiakini.
“So, rectify it. Change it to something more magnanimous, rather than this very narrow-minded condemning of others,” he added.
BTN has came under fire for a series of slides that were leaked online on June 15, in which the agency claimed that “racism” can unite a race for a “good purpose”.
The agency later removed the folder containing the slides from its website, and claimed that they were for internal “academic” use.
Despite denials by the government and the agency, sporadic leaks of closed-door events conducted by the BTN or featuring its staff have continued to entrench suspicions that the bureau was a hotbed of racism and “brainwashing”.
A senior BTN official caused an uproar back in 2010 when word leaked that he had used the terms “si mata sepet” and “si botol” at a closed-door Puteri Umno gathering to describe the Chinese and Indians respectively.
The terms are considered derogatory with “si mata sepet” meaning slit-eyed and “si botol”, alcoholic, in Malay.
