‘SMIRKING’ KHAIRY FINALLY ADMITS BN’S PROPAGANDA ARM BTN WAS A ‘POLITICAL’ TOOL: SO WHY DID HE NOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT BEFORE?

KUALA LUMPUR – Former Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has admitted the National Civics Bureau (BTN) did harbour elements of politicking within its modules.

He responded as such when asked to comment on the abolishment of BTN and the National Service programme (PLKN), which was said to be a platform of indoctrination by then Barisan Nasional administration.

“PLKN is more towards patriotism; where under PLKN 2.0 it was more focused on living skills.

“As for BTN, you decide for your own,” he said with an obvious smirk.

When pressed further and asked to respond if BTN was politically-charged, Khairy replied: “BTN, of course lah.”

This comes as current Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman today announced the abolishment of both PLKN and BTN programs with immediate effect.

The PLKN was cited by many as a waste of resources, with training said to be not as comprehensive as initially thought in comparison with military’s standards.

The Pakatan Harapan government has been under pressure to terminate the BTN due to prevailing suspicions that the agency was effectively a propaganda arm set up by the previous Barisan Nasional administration.

Khairy added he would be debating about the abolishment during tomorrow’s Dewan Rakyat sitting, while questioning the direction of the new programmes being mooted by the current Youth and Sports ministry.

“So what happens to it, that’s the big question. They have to figure out what to do with the character development programmes, as both these programmes have got to do with character development that involves the youth.

“That has not been answered yet,” he said.

Khairy also touched on the allegations brought against 1Malaysia 4 Youth (iM4U), the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government’s initiative to encourage volunteerism among youths.

Earlier, Syed Saddiq had said an overhaul of the initiative was due, after labelling it an “I Love PM” initiative.

“I feel as a whole, it’s not fair to call it an ‘I Love PM’ programme, because they did many volunteering programmes, which did not involve politics at all.

“For example they hosted the National Volunteers Programme, where they had tens of thousands of youths volunteering for activities such as ‘gotong-royong’ and cleaning up the beaches,” Khairy elaborated.

– Malay Mail