YOURSAY | 'You can take Dr M out of Umno, but you can't take Umno out of Dr M.'

Kim Quek: There is no excuse to retain the National Civics Bureau (BTN or Biro Tatanegara), the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) and the National Security Council (NSC) Act – all of which are redundant and of dubious constitutionality and making a negative impact on the nation at huge costs to taxpayers.

With an annual budget of over RM800 million, Jakim alone spends over RM2 million per day, despite its function being a duplicate of those of the states which are already mandated by the constitution to look after Islamic affairs.

It is also noted that the proposed rehash of the 90 entities will not significantly slash the current monstrous Prime Minister’s Department budget, as only 10 are scrapped with the rest migrated to other ministries or merged.

New Day: BTN being retained? Come on Pakatan Harapan, what is your agenda here? Don't just retain something that is known to create a supremacist mindset, otherwise the public service will never change.

As far as Jakim is concerned, they certainly have been more of a hindrance than a help in promoting good Islamic qualities in this country. All they appear to have done is expand and reinforce the narrow Sunni ideals promulgated by the religious right.

Is this the direction Harapan wishes to keep going in? Are the moderates going to be pushed back into the margins again? Are you still going to feed this seemingly unstoppable monster of religious zealotry at the expense of other views and perspectives?

What new structures are going to put in place to prevent this? At this time, Jakim does not serve all Muslim interests, only those that wish to exert power to subjugate the rest.

Harapan, this is not what we voted you in for.

Buat Apa: Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has shown once more he hasn't the guts to dissolve these regressive departments.

Mahathir wants to re-engineer illiberal Malaysia, as he did between 1981 and 2003. He is Umno through and through.

Jeez: So Mahathir still doesn’t understand that we are where we are now is not due in no small part to him?

Once in power, you always think that you know what is right and wrong, and you will compromise the political system's checks and balances by dismantling and rigging the system to suit yourself.

Once you start compromising, when will it end? Even if he intends to do good, we have to remember the inheritor of the damaged and compromised government system can and will wreck the nation.

This has happened with BN government. What else is needed to open our eyes?

Kangkung: Slowly but surely, we are seeing Umno 2.0 emerging. During the campaign before GE14, it was loud and clear that BTN had to go and now Umno 2.0 wants to keep this most racist institution.

Anonymous 2439891477538802: BTN has to be renamed, its syllabus totally revamped and its entire staff replaced if it is to be allowed to continue its toxic existence.

For more than two decades, government officers sent there were brainwashed and imbued with racist propaganda and with messages inimical to national unity and harmony, such as that related to the ‘ketuanan Melayu’ doctrine.

All such abuse of government institutions must never be allowed to recur in the future if Malaysia is to achieve developed nation status.

Patriot 1: If these controversial departments are to be retained, they need a total overhaul.

They were perhaps established with good intentions, but have morphed into monsters hated by the rakyat, and also responsible for creating racial division and concepts like ‘ketuanan Melayu’.

Sunshine: BTN would require some serious efforts at redemption if it is to be a responsible training and development centre for all Malaysians, after having rendered harm to multiracial unity by introducing an unhealthy, irresponsible curriculum.

There is little in it that it could make it a valuable national institution under responsible management.

All future BTN curriculum development, programme delivery and evaluation should be undertaken by teams of multiracial and highly qualified personnel.

VGV: Those who attended BTN courses previously would know the truth about how the courses are run. Until unless you change the mode of BTN, nothing can be achieved as race and religion will dominate these types of courses.

Please look into this matter Harapan, for it may turn out to be worse than before.

Fairplayer: All three agencies – BTN, Jakim and NSC - need to be dismantled. They serve no useful purpose. They are only there to keep the ‘ketuanan’ mentality and sow racial discord. They are a waste of taxpayers' money.

Keeping these agencies is an insult to the Harapan’s ‘Hope Fund’ because all three are hopeless and only give rise to hopelessness.

Anonymous_1397613657: Harapan, please don’t let the sly fox run amok. With power, the old man is showing his true colours. Please speak up or your parties will be destroyed.

Yenni: I’m disappointed. Should have known that the old fox cannot learn new tricks.

Speaking Sense: As a Harapan voter, my verdict is so far so not very good. We hope our hope in the ‘Coalition of Hope’ will not turn out to be a false hope.

Harapan needs to prove that quickly, before disillusionment sets in.

Anonymous_4205e994: Manifestos are meant for the hype leading up to elections. Now that the trophy is in hand, there's no more hype except walk the talk or get skinned by the free media.

We must not go back down the slippery road to disintegration.

Save Our Currency: If they are so sure of the benefits of BTN, why not put the course contents online so the rakyat can see for themselves this Hitlerian agenda of the superior race and history?

Peace: To members of the new free press, please keep these agencies in your sights at all times and keep them in check.

We don’t trust them. We want harmony and unity in Malaysia.

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