KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 ― Not just lower court judges but judicial officers and registrars at the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya were ordered to attend “propaganda” courses organised by the National Civic Bureau (BTN) prior to the May 9 general election, Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) claimed today.

The group’s adviser N. Surendran said there were new documents to suggest that there was a bid to “indoctrinate” Palace of Justice staff as well as court officers from the Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam courts in the training programme that was held between March 23 and 25 at Kem Bina Negara, Tanjung Rhu in Selangor.

“The rot, thus, runs deeper than we had previously suspected; it is not just session court [sic] judges, but the entire court system that appears to have been targeted for BTN's propaganda,” he said in a statement.

“Those who were forced to attend the course have informed us, among other things, that it was impressed upon them that it was important to maintain the BN in power as government,” he added.

The BTN, created in 1974 as a research unit under the Youth Ministry, was later renamed and parked directly under the Prime Minister’s Department in 1981 when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad became prime minister the first time.

The agency is supposed to work towards nation building, but its critics, including participants, have claimed that the programmes promote Malay Muslim supremacy and aim to keep the BN in power.

According to Surendran, the BTN training programme was also drummed into the court officers ahead of the 14th general election that “if the opposition Pakatan Harapan wins, the people will suffer and the economy be damaged”.

The civil rights lawyer and former Padang Rengas MP accused the BTN of fomenting racism and disunity as well as being an alleged propaganda machine of the former Barisan Nasional (BN) administration.

Surendran had recently also claimed that Sessions Court judges were asked to attend a similar training from March 16 to 18 at the Akademi Kenegaraan Biro Tatanegara at Jalan Bellamy here.

“This is an unmistakable attempt at the indoctrination of the judicial arm of the state, carried out behind closed doors,” he said.

Surendran said such an act cannot be ignored and called for an independent panel of inquiry to investigate the matter.

“We need to know what else was done to compromise the judiciary, and over what period of time?” he said.

He added that the leaders of the former BN administration, including former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi must also explain the BTN programmes for members of the judiciary and court staff.