Kursus BTN...

Sharing from my inbox:

"My sibling is a medical doctor in X university.

During 1998 political crisis in Malaysia, it opened both of our eyes. I was just 17 then. My sibling was 19. We became anti-umno after that. Not because we hate it just for the sake of hate, but we hate the injustice, the corruption, the racial hatred that was being played by umno all this while.

After graduating, I worked... in the private sector, while my sibling worked in a government hospital as a medical doctor.

My sibling suddenly became very racist - like 'umno kind of thinking' - after attending one of the kursus/course - biro tatanegara. It's like being brain washed to the max.

Now my sibling hates the Chinese/Indian for no reason.

I went for bersih 3.0 rally.

My sibling told me, 'ha, pergi la sokong India LGBT'...?"

Did you attend the course? What do they teach in those courses?

*****

My response:

Yes, I did attend one BTN course many, many years ago (nearly 2 decades now). As far as I can remember, it was four days of lectures with interspersed military training boot camp style. One the last day there was the much maligned (at least by me) jungle trekking. Some of my friends considered the last day the highlight. I preferred the brain-washing, I mean the lectures.

I can't recall much but the location was pretty much in the midst of some jungle somewhere (there were dormitories of course, and food and utilities were basic). I don't remember much about what was thought, it was more self-help/motivational stuff delivered by either teachers or lecturers.

Then there was one session, I can't remember who gave it but it was definitely some politician, and I could never forget what he said. We were all UK/Ireland based first year college students who came back during summer holiday, and this is what that man said:

"Kamu ingat kamu dapat scholarship ni sebab kamu pandai (you think you got this scholarship because you are smart). Salah tu. Kamu dapat sebab kerajaan (you only got it because of government policy)".

I remember I hated him for saying that, because all the while I had thought that I had worked hard and earned my scholarship like everyone else. His words stung, I will not lie. And I wondered what everyone else thought, but it probably just slipped my mind after listening to an hours worth of brain-washing, or lecturing, depending on your point of view.

That's pretty much all I remember about the BTN.

Although I'm not much of an outdoors person, in hindsight, five days of jungle-trekking doesn't seem like such a bad idea after all. 

• Malisa Ami I agree BTN is rubbish. It should be about being proud to be a Malaysian and to fly the Malaysian flag high when we're abroad and to make us feel that we can achieve greatness even amongst so called 'more civilised' society, and not to feel that we are inferior; no matter what race/religion you are. And that with a scholarship we should have the responsibility to do our best in our studies, as it is a trust/amanah given to us. It should instill patriotism for the country, not to any particular ruling party. And most definitely NOT to make us think that we received the scholarship based on our race rather than our brains!! That, I find, is truly offensive.
• October 16 at 4:05pm · Unlike · 7