By Azly Rahman
What price indoctrination? Herein lies the question on the RM550 million spent over 10 years on a civic-consciousness programme that turned out to be a project of instilling fear into the Malays – fear of their own shadow and fear of other races.
The Biro Tatanegara (BTN) courses use Russian-styled pseudo-scientific pop psychology, drawn from the work of Bulgarian mind-bending experts in ‘suggestopedia’ developed by Lozanov and Barzakov with creative visualisation para-psychological techniques, into which the mind is emptied before propaganda is funnelled.
When the mind is half-asleep, subconscious wide awake, the body is relaxed, the room darkened, the voice of the propagandist-facilitator reigns supreme, suggesting anything to ensure that the doped, docile, and domesticated mind enters a game of master-slave narrative.
The BTN facilitators become the masters, the participants, mesmerised, are now the slaves – so that the idea of Ketuanan Melayu gets chiseled into the right side of the brain and urges the emotions to become reptilian, so that hate and mistrust of other races will be imprinted into the brain cells.
The directors and creators of Malaysia’s now infamous indoctrination camps must be guilty of not learning enough of what culture and human progress is before promoting a dangerously divisive mental pogrom that is purposely designed to breed hatred amongst all races.
The last few months have seen a public outcry over the real intention of the bureau. The public do not want to see their children subjected to a government-sponsored programme of teaching a brand of history that is no longer appealing to a society badly in need of a better way to teach tolerance and meaningful understanding amongst the races.
Malaysia is a land for all races; a land of immigrants in which our forefathers toiled in padi fields, tin mines, rubber estates, the deep and high seas, and the jungle – both natural and urban.
BTN is a multi-million ringgit propaganda outfit that teaches history which is no longer relevant to the rakyat’s need for a more inclusive and cosmopolitan view of what Malaysia is.
Malay cultural revolution
From a cultural perspective, BTN represent the thoughts of an old school – one based on the immutability of culture, and the ‘classic norms’ whereas culture is not static and ethnicity is fluid and ever-changing.
We live in an ever-changing present where the past merely consists of memories collected by those who believed in an imagined community – whether that community is Malay, Javanese, Bugis, Tamil, or Bengali. Globalisation erodes these and, from the point of view, chaos and complexity theory creates new cultures out of them.
Ultimately the question is – what is a ‘Malay’? Hence my idea of a ‘Sawojaya’ as a new race to be constructed, so that we Malays migrate to newer fields, after the Malay mind have been damaged by BTN in modern times, and by feudalism and colonialism in times past. The evolution is cultural.
It is like the Africans migrating from Mali-an dance to breakdance, and Yoruba tribal drumming to Bronx hip-hop. As long as we do not evolve to become gangsta rappers, we’re good.
But think of a marriage between a Thai and African-American – a marriage that produced Tiger Woods who recently ‘transgressed’. Think of Obama’s (left) parents – one Kansas white and one Kenyan. We must search for hybridised cultures that still has ethical foundations and celebrate their evolution.
Essentially Malays must leave their cocoon of ‘ultra-Malayness’ and become more cosmopolitan. This initiative must include a radical restructuring and deconstructing of the very core of ‘incapacitating’ aspect of the Malay culture. The Hang Tuahs, the Sejarah Melayu, and the glorification of the traditional Malay sultanate and its decadence and despotism and all the myths of superiority – all these must be questioned and deconstructed by the younger generation.
Real progress can be made if we redesign our schools based on the principles of education for critical, creative, ethical, and futuristic consciousness. The old school must make way for the new school. The classical norms must give way to the newer voices of the subaltern – voices of radical and liberating multiculturalism.
The work of BTN is about making more and more Malays subservient and docile, so that the more powerful amongst them can plunder the wealth of the nation and rob even from the poor. It’s all about material gain and who gets the most out of a shrinking economy these days – in a world in which the definition of race and ethnicity is merely an instrument of domination.
Malays are now feeling that they are being betrayed by the 10-year reign of BTN. They are angry. They are perceiving BTN as a traitor to the Malays; denying them a better perspective by instilling fear of themselves. Who benefits from all these? This is what the Malays are asking.
A new Malaysia requires a shut down of all BTN activities with immediate effect. The damage has been done through the dissemination of truncated history and strategies of a hidden curriculum delivered via under subconscious state of mind.
Malaysians have had a 10-year bad dream, locked in a master-slave world. For RM55 million a year, they could have seen better integrated schools, less racist teachers trained in multicultural education, and the implementation of a better curriculum that celebrates diversity and teaches us that Malaysia does not belong to this or that race, but to a land of immigrants valued for their talent and their respect for one another.
BTN destroyed that vision. It must therefore be put on trial and next, closed down. We will emerge victorious – as peace-loving Malaysians.
A well-written article.
I only think the word “dream” in
“Malaysians have had a 10-year bad dream” should be replaced with “nightmare”.
Good to see that Nazri is now seeing the error of his ways – Let us hope he will take the next step and not waver.
http://malaysiawatch4.blogspot.com/2009/12/malaysiakini-and-truth-about-btn.html
Now if only they remove the “malay=muslim” definition I am sure we will remove much of the religious disharmony in the nation like quibbling over the word “ALLAH” in the courts. Must be the first type of case in the world and should enter the GBOWR.
This country is gone out of competitiveness.
The bumiputra policy causing MALASIAN big mental problem.
The policy can be reviewed and put end of it but the government still insist to make MALAYSIAN big mental problem from this policy.
This country is gone out of competitiveness and go to be bankrupt.
///Good to see that Nazri is now seeing the error of his ways – Let us hope he will take the next step and not waver./// – HJ Angus
Nazri (the Mouth) the minister who took BTN to task for its racist propaganda has now directed his criticisms on Utusan Malaysia.
TheMalaysianInsider reports: ‘ “Umno maverick Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz has continued to condemn Utusan Malaysia for its “outdated” racist propaganda, saying the Umno-owned newspaper must accept that Malaysia is a multi-racial country.
“They should stop it because how would we (the Malays) like it if people say that Malays are lazy and stupid? We would also get angry. Don’t do to others what we don’t want others to do unto us,” the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department told The Malaysian Insider.’
We should give him due credit for saying the right thing. ‘Don’t do to others what we don’t want others to do unto us’ is the common ethical principle that underpins most moral and religious belief systems, even in this world of moral rerlativism.
No one knows how or why he changes his stance – whether its due to a sudden revelation or cold deliberation of what is the correct position to take. Skeptics may impute it to a good cop and bad cop game but whatever skepticism it is right that we adjudge based on the content and merits of the message as distinct from the messenger’s motives imputed or speculated. After all he also bears a cost in alienating conservatives and extremists for taking such an inclusive stance of taking to task two UMNO’s intitutions like BTN and Utusan Malaysia dedicated to propagating ‘Ketuanan’ values.
I am now totally convinced that umno is a party of decepticons from a faraway planet sent to destroy our sun.
Monsters. Alien monsters in the house!
Malaysia has become breeding grounds for “jellyfishes”. By indoctrinating Malays with the “fear factor”, they had to rely solely on government support, thus giving full control of both their physical body and mentality to the government. What difference is this compared with COMMUNISM which the Malaysian government is very much against?
Furthermore, Najis is calling for globalization in Malaysia. Can you imagine releasing birds which have been kept in cages and well fed into the wild? How can these “caged birds” compete in the open field? They will simply be “killed” off! Doesn’t our BN government realize this?
//When the mind is half-asleep, subconscious wide awake, the body is relaxed, the room darkened, the voice of the propagandist-facilitator reigns supreme, suggesting anything to ensure that the doped, docile, and domesticated mind enters a game of master-slave narrative.//
Carr…carramba! This is actually how suicide bombers are trained by Al-Qaeda
Like it or not, it’s feng shui
N d nation is doomed with a name like Malaysia
Mal = bad or ill n we know what ‘sia’ means in BM
In French, Malaysia is Malaisie, so so similar 2 malaise
They know something that we don’t know, how ah?
“The Biro Tatanegara (BTN) courses use Russian-styled pseudo-scientific pop psychology, drawn from the work of Bulgarian mind-bending experts in ’suggestopedia’ developed by Lozanov and Barzakov with creative visualisation para-psychological techniques, into which the mind is emptied before propaganda is funnelled.”
Is the UMNO government actually communism-inclined? Seems like they are just as Machiavellian. The ends justify the means. I have yet to see them practising the values of our national religion. Rituals and forms are useless if it doesn’t result in practising its religious essence…. just like performing meaningless self-defence “kata”.
“The work of BTN is about making more and more Malays subservient and docile, so that the more powerful amongst them can plunder the wealth of the nation and rob even from the poor”
Well said.
it’s time for the 70% of the population to take the red pill. They are still in a dreamland created by this umno/bn entities, not knowing their bodies are being snatched, consumed, and thrashed away after being used.
If they don’t wake up, we’ll fighting a losing battle.
This is a live experience that I want to relate here. This happened a few years ago. My friend has a pigeon caged for quite a long time at home. One day I managed to convinced him to release the priced pigeon so as to free the bird. We could not find a suitable place to release the pigeon in KL. We later found one somewhere inside Cyberjaya. Immediately after releasing the pigeon, it just managed to fly a short distance and fell to the ground. We realised in the vegetation around there were predators waiting for this weakened pigeon. We decided to go home with the pigeon inside the cage.
The moral here is once a person is taken of his natural ability, he has lost his or her ability to use it. This applies to Malaysian environment.
///The work of BTN is about making more and more Malays subservient and docile, so that the more powerful amongst them can plunder the wealth of the nation and rob even from the poor. It’s all about material gain and who gets the most out of a shrinking economy these days – in a world in which the definition of race and ethnicity is merely an instrument of domination.///– Azly Rahman
The work of BTN did more than that. It made Malays civil servants believe in racial-communism whereby government coffers are for the Malays to share, though they did not share equally. Nonetheless, the wealth created for Malays out of national coffers are pride to the race of which they belong. That gives them pleasure all the same even though some do not get equal share since stealing from the government equates to stealing from non-Malays who are said to pay 80% of taxes collected. As for resources made available by Petronas, siphoning off from the source also prevented money being used which might provide advantage to non-Malays. BTN, which according to AAB, was organized to explain NEP to government servants, most probably to justify why the racist discriminatory policies could be exempted from Islamic teachings. Since then institutionalised corruption are forgivable to those steeped in practising Islamic faith. There is therefore no wonder that corruption, institutionalised in the government services is so widespread and yet Malay civil servants are religiously attending mosques every Friday.
BTN is eroding Islamic teachings among the trainees. But then Islam has already been politicised in the country, and some Muslims can scarify their faith so that UMNO leaders can stay in power. That is part of racial –communism where some have to give what they can so that the leaders can enjoy on their behalf.
I can’t understand why so much time is wasted on BTN. I can understand that this is a cheap way to collect money from the Gomen. On indoctrination, surely with the net and the mobile available every where plus the fact that those wo attend the course are a lot smarter than the instructors, they [ instructurs] will never brain wash the students. Being at that level, they would certainly use their physical presence to make the students toe the line. Just that and the easy money they can collect! It is funny when you have to deal some of those characters: they always think BIG but never seem to compete in daily life.
This business of indoctrination often back fires, where the “indoctrinators” are the ones left believing in their sloganeering. At such stage, the nation will be in trouble if already!!