How ironic that our education ministers and home ministers have stepped forward as ardent defenders of Biro Tatanegara indoctrination camps.

Let me join the chorus of past BTN attendees who have explained what happens in those barracks. I was forced to attend one of these camps for five days and it was attempted brainwashing, pure and simple.

The education minister is responsible for inculcating unity, trust, knowledge and love of country among Malaysia's youth, and guide them towards realising their potential. The home minister is in charge of fostering order and unity by safeguarding the freedoms guaranteed in the constitution and protecting the integrity of law enforcement institutions.

These ministers are precisely the ones who, if they are doing their jobs right, should consign BTN to the rubbish bin of derelict outfits. If schools are inculcating patriotism and unity for eleven years, if the police and law enforcement are earning public confidence and respecting fundamental rights every day, there is no need for way-short and too-late courses on patriotism and unity.

But Muhyiddin Yassin and Hishamuddin Hussein vocally defend BTN, which existence implies that they have failed in their respective roles.

Are they admitting failure, tacitly? Are they suggesting that they have not put people first and pursued performance now? Either they are conceding that schools and security institutions are not inspiring enough patriotism and not providing enough secure space for expression of concern for country, and hence we need BTN to cover the deficit, or BTN is not really about patriotism and unity.

I know from experience, and we can surmise from the reflexive, vacuous counter attacks against BTN's exposure, that Umno has much, very much riding on its perpetuation.

BTN is not about loving Malaysia, not about appreciating shared histories and seeking common ground, not about finding ways to be meaningfully engaged and integrated. It is not about demanding change to broken public institutions, not about people through their diversity offering their best efforts at nation building. BTN's syllabus, and its very core, propagates one-way version of unity and one mode of showing patriotism: embrace ketuanan Melayu and submit to Umno-BN power.

The signal to civil servants, teachers and government scholars, for whom BTN attendance is compulsory, is clear: be loyal to the Umno party-state, then your masters may reward you.

The beneficiaries of BTN's indoctrination occupying high office are trying to position themselves as change-oriented by saying the syllabus will be altered. You can dilute the racial language, even tone down the opposition bashing, but BTN will retain its true nature as an instrument of Umno power. And Malays are the most dis-served and dis-empowered by this tragic abuse of public office.

Biro Tatanegara has no part whatsoever in a democratic, vibrant and mature society, or in any nation harbouring such aspirations. If Malaysia keeps it going, our national slogan would more aptly be "Power First, Performance Later".