There is a lot of hoo-ha about the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) these days. The National Civics Bureau is being accused of a lot of things, from being a brainwashing centre to sowing racial and religious prejudice and many others in between.
However, none of the articles that have come out so far (the ones I've read at least!) have actually interviewed a person who's gone through the BTN course.
So, I took the liberty of getting in touch with somebody who did, just to hear what it sounds like from someone who's "been there and done that".
I know this piece will not have a snowball's chance in hell of making it into the pages of the NST, so I'll just go ahead and put it up here.
Here, in the person's own words, is the BTN experience:
Yes, I'm a graduate of the program and hated it but unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't talk. I would love to, but I'm waiting for an answer for my scholarship extension and really need it to finish my studies next year.
However, I can tell you that there is the "Malay supremacy" idea in the program esp by some of the speakers, and there is no 1Malaysia concept whatsoever. And the instilling patriotism thing... well, let's just say (it's) patriotism according to how they want us to feel. So felt like brainwashing although at the end of each day I would complain about it with a friend there who hated the program as well.
The experience was not that bad for me since it was for sponsored students (Mara, JPA, universities) who will be doing their graduate studies overseas. They were not particularly strict on us. Probably because there were some Chinese and Indians students in the group. I heard it is worst for undergrads since there are some political play in the program (I managed to avoid not attending them while in UiTM).
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So there you have it - BTN in a nutshell.
