The Malaysian Bar - BTN and poor political culture

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BTN and poor political culture

Friday, 04 December 2009 08:49am

In many cases, the people realised something was wrong, rallied to protest 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 and over all these years, many civil servants have been brainwashed and become the “little Napoleon (one who is pugnacious, arrogant and abrasive) in the public service. They are also the culprit of government policy implementation deviations. Meanwhile, poor political culture has long been started. There were physical conflicts and violence whenever there was 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 no one tried to supervise, investigate and correct it after many people had lodged against the BTN course curriculum and its lecturers? Minister and deputy minister of 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 for the Cabinet's decision.
"The problem is, is it too late to do so?"

Just like other government agencies, BTN had received a lot of funds from the government (A total of RM74 million had been allocated to BTN this year. It was RM4 million more than the 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 “1Malaysia”.

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 the shifts of a few contractors over the past few years. It was reported that a newly-build footbridge in Negeri Sembilan was demolished, too. The Works Ministry said earlier that the Finance Ministry had issued a new circular, any project whose completion had been delayed by more than 20% 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 an illegal syndicate in Sarawak had 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 incident on the nomination day of a by-election in which they fought and threw stones and bottles, wounding the 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 themselves as 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 actions against unruly party members. Allowing members' rogue behaviour will incite political hatred and eventually lead to splits in the society and hatred politics.

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 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. (By LIM SUE GOAN/Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/Sin Chew Daily)