BTN and poor political culture, a disgrace to UMNO and BN

In many cases, people realised something was wrong, staged protests and asked for correction only after the errors have been made and the community has paid a heavy price.

For example, the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) course curriculum has been spreading extreme racism over all these years. Many civil servants have been brainwashed and become “little Napoleons (people who are pugnacious, arrogant and abrasive) in the public service. They are also the culprits of government policy implementation deviations.

Our poor political culture has long been established. There are physical conflicts and violence whenever there is a by-election. However, both the ruling and opposition parties would shield themselves. Would it be too late to denounce only after they have stepped on and burned the portraits?

Why did no one try to investigate and correct the BTN course curriculum and its lecturers even though many people had complained? The minister and deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Office are still having a dispute over whether to make changes to the curriculum. It shows that there are shortcomings in the government's administration as they are having their own interpretations of the Cabinet's decision.

Just like other government agencies, BTN had received a lot of funds from the government (a total of RM74 million has been allocated to BTN this year. It is RM4 million more than the allocation for Parliament.) However, no one is overseeing its scope of work. As a result, the government is spending money on something which is against the spirit of “1 Malaysia”.

In addition to BTN, other government agencies, such as the Public Works Department (PWD), are ruining everything. The construction of a bridge in my hometown Kluang has not been completed even after work by several contractors over the past few years. It was reported that a newly-build footbridge in Negri Sembilan has collapsed. The Works Ministry has said that the Finance Ministry had issued a new circular that any project whose completion had been delayed by more than 20 per cent or two months will be classified as a sick project.

A lot of money has gone and only now they start to oversee government projects, just like how an illegal syndicate in Sarawak has siphoned federal funds through fabricated claims. And now, they hope to take remedial measures after suffering the loss. The problem is, is it too late to do so? The government must intensify oversight of the agencies, or the worse may come.

As for poor political culture, something worse than stepping on and burning portraits happened before. For example, violent incidents on the nomination day in a by-election in which people fought and threw stones and bottles, wounding party supporters. But leaders of both the ruling and opposition parties did not take it seriously. Instead, they accused each other as the aggressor and claimed they were the victim.

In order to get rid of poor political culture, both the ruling and opposition parties should restrain their members and supporters and take disciplinary action against unruly party members. Allowing members' rogue behaviour will incite political hatred and eventually lead to disunity in society and hatred politics.

A poor political culture will create an unstable political environment and gradually undermine the confidence of foreign investors, as well as the public. It will also increase emigrant.

In order to become a first-class country, Malaysia must abandon its slack attitude and stop covering up mistakes. We must hate the outrageous behaviour of BTN and other government agencies like poison. Last but not least, we should keep poor political culture at a distance.

MI
03/12/09