COMMENT In response to recent criticism of it, the Biro Tatanegara or BTN (National Civics Bureau) is being forced to modify its use of blunt propaganda and psychological manipulation.

According to incredulous participants, a BTN video once told a story that the sultanate of Malacca had fallen to foreign invaders with the support of Chinese and Indian "traitors".

One tearful young woman in the audience wondered out loud why the government had not held "roadshows" throughout the country to highlight this nugget of history that was "so little known". The reference to these "traitors" has now been deleted.

I was among a group of government servants ordered to attend a BTN programme...