Several DAP parliamentarians are making renewed calls for the National Civics Bureau (BTN) and the Special Affairs Department (Jasa) to be abolished following a leak of BTN’s presentation slides.

 

“It is clear that they were founded for political motives. Jasa has an allocation of RM21.7 million a year; the two propaganda units have RM80 million to spend a year.

 

“(This is) just to produce cheap propaganda that is racist and slanderous against those who are critical of the BN government.

 

“Therefore we are unanimous in urging that these two departments be abolished immediately,” Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari said today.

 

With him at the press conference at the Parliament lobby were Stampin MP Julian Tan and Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto.

BTN is a part of the Prime Minister’s Department and regularly conducts talks for civil servants and Public Service Department (PSD) scholarship holders.

Jasa, on the other hand, is part of the Ministry of Communication and Multimedia, which Zairil pointed out was founded to “ensure and defend the political stability of the (then) Alliance government”, quoting from its website.

Jasa's files out in the open

Yesterday, a security loophole was discovered on BTN’s website that allowed any member of the public to access its files, and word quickly spread on the social media.

The loophole was closed yesterday evening, but not before Jasa's files had been downloaded and made available to members of the public through other sources.

Of particular interest were a series of presentation slides believed to be used by BTN in its lessons.

These slides claim that, among others, racism in Malaysia can unite a race for a “good purpose”, and that indie Malay book publishers are out to influence youths to vote against BN.

 

It also contained slides accusing DAP of playing racial and religious sentiments for political mileage, which the three MPs denied.

“If DAP is truly anti-Malay and anti-Islam, we couldn’t have won the people’s support, especially (national laureate) A Samad Said who has just joined our party. So that’s clear slander,” Zairil said.