The office of the Selangor menteri besar will be organising a forum on the National Civics Bureau (or in Malay the Biro Tatanegara, BTN) courses next week to discuss the relevancy of the controversial programme.

The forum - titled ‘BTN: Patriotic or Racist' will see the participation of former BTN participants who will share their experiences in attending BTN programmes.

khalid ibrahim at selangor pkr convention 15112009 Selangor MB Abdul Khalid Ibrahim had previously said that the forum was aimed to expose to the public about the essence of the course module and the implementation of measures to correct the course.

The forum will be held next Wednesday (Dec 23) at the PJLA Theater in Jalan Universiti, Petaling Jaya. It will start at 7.45pm.

An advisory from the MB's office said that a group of young politicians from various parties, cultural activist and political observers will participate in the forum.

Among the speakers at the forum include Khalid's political secretary and PKR's Seri Setia elected representative Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, PKR's Batu Caves elected representative Amirudin Shari, former Umno candidate for the Tumpat parliamentary seat Ashraf Wajdi Dasuki, culture activist Eddin Khoo and Malaysiakini columnist KJ John.

The BTN courses have come under a spotlight recently after the Selangor government banned students of Institute of Higher Learning (IPT) under its control and state government officers from participating in the federal government-run programme on the grounds that it was being used by the BN government as a political tool.

This then snowballed into further revelations that the BTN courses conducted were racist in nature and only aimed to consolidate Umno's control.

The Selangor government, feeling that the BTN courses do not contribute to national unity, instead planned to set up its own courses.

Two other Pakatan-controlled states - Penang and Kelantan - also decided to follow Selangor in banning their students and civil servants from participating in the federal run BTN courses.

The criticisms levelled against the BTN courses initially saw some defensive statements from the government ministers but subsequently the cabinet had agreed to review the courses, including making it relevant for all races by incorporating Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's 1Malaysia concept.