Prove BTN is racist, says deputy minister

Razali questions G25 and DAP for demanding the bureau be disbanded.

PETALING JAYA: Critics of the controversial Biro Tata Negara have been challenged to show evidence of racism in the organisation.

Razali Ibrahim, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, questioned why groups such as the G25 eminent Malays and the DAP wanted BTN to be disbanded.

He contended that BTN had never condoned racism, and that its programmes promoted patriotism. “And how can there be any element of racism when the programmes are open to all races,” he said, according to Star Online.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang has questioned federal ministers about their support for BTN, claiming that the bureau promoted racism, anti-nationalism and attributed to gross wastage of public funds.

Lim said BTN’s failure was reflected in the increasing racial and religious polarisation that had led to a worsening state of disunity.

G25 spokesperson Noor Farida Ariffin, a former diplomat, had said that BTN was a bulwark of brainwashing and a hotbed of racism.

Last week, slides of a BTN presentation on “indie” groups in the counter-culture movement were leaked online, causing outrage among writers and rock groups.