11 July 2018

Former director of BTN is not a sound choice as the Speaker of Dewan Rakyat

Although Promise 28 of the Pakatan Harapan Manifesto pledges to that “the PH Government will dissolve the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) which over the years actively became a cheap political agent for UMNO” , the fact that PKR Sungai Petani MP Dato’ Johari Abdul who was formerly a director of BTN, has confirmed being shortlisted as a candidate for the Dewan Rakyat Speaker portfolio (Free Malaysia Today, 11 July 2018) is painfully unsettling as it shows that PH holds no qualm reneging its words to appoint one with links to a government agency reputed for imparting xenophobia.

More importantly, the Speaker also needs to be a person whose integrity and credibility are unquestionable to his peers. As a former director of the BTN, Johari’s credibility is however, dubious at best.

For the PH government to unbelievably propose a former director of this chauvinist bureau to be the next Speaker, do we really want to risk our Dewan Rakyat being contaminated by the bigoted, intolerant views of BTN?

Thus when newly minted Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq insists that BTN will be abolished, pray, how will a 25-year old be able to influence a Cabinet led by a 93-year old? Will PH now be able to disband the BTN for real? Who actually makes the decision?

BTN’s old wine in new bottle

Although Johari also claims that abolishing BTN will not affect patriotism as BTN’s duties can be taken over  by other agencies e.g. Institut Tadbiran Awam Negara (Intan) and universities throughout the country (Free Malaysia Today, 11 July 2018), isn’t this suggestion akin to the saying old wine in new bottle? What matters is the contents of BTN course, not the location or agency where it is taught. Dissemination to a far wider audience is possible via universities.

BTN has received countless criticisms since the past decade when stories of the Bureau’s racial propaganda started to surface in rapid successions. There have been BTN alumni who have attested that the lecturers of BTN programmes claimed that the Malays had to depend on other races because some Malays had betrayed their own race. One other more recent controversy can be seen when BTN deputy director, Hamim Husin labelled the Chinese as “si mata pepet”, and Indians as “si botol”.

Broken PH Manifesto

Taking advantage of the negative sentiments of Malaysians, and to coax voters to sway in their favour, the PH coalition pledged to dissolve BTN once they are in power. Yet, in spite of the criticisms, and the coalition’s promise, Dr. Mahathir single-handedly overturned the promise, ignored it, and insisted on retaining the dreaded Bureau under the Prime Minister’s Department.

Besides violating the PH Manifesto to abolish BTN, is this not a clear-cut indication that our Prime Minister actually agrees with the racist ideology of BTN?

How neutral is a former parliament whip?

Separately, before GE14, Pakatan Harapan vowed to restore dignity to the Parliament, to empower the institution into an effective check-and-balance of the executives. The Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat needs to be impartial; a man who is above partisan politics. Johari Abdul is not this a man. He had previously acted as the PKR parliamentary whip — an enforcer for the MPs of his party in Parliament. No matter how one looks at it, one could not help but doubt the man’s ability to be impartial after assuming a position of such unequivocal partisanship.

Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun

MCA Vice President

-MCA Online-