The National Civics Bureau (Malay: Biro Tata Negara), abbreviated BTN, was an agency of the Malaysian previous ruling government under Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in the Prime Minister's Department.

[1] BTN's programmes are controversial, and many accuse them of explicitly promoting ketuanan Melayu and the former governing coalition Barisan Nasional (BN).

Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, another alumnus and assemblyman for Seri Setia in the State Legislative Assembly of Selangor, claimed that the BTN camp he attended was "racial and political in nature," with trainers telling attendees that Malays require affirmative action and criticising the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) as "deviationist".

"[12] On 21 November 2009, Nik Nazmi, Amirudin and five other Pakatan Rakyat state assemblymen asked the Selangor government to stop requiring students at its universities and colleges to attend BTN courses.

In an editorial, the publication said: "The Malaysian Insider understands that there are moves within the administration to dilute the syllabus of BTN courses, as a compromise.

Describing typical course contents, he said participants "are taught about the Federal Constitution, the social contract, the position of the Malays in this country and 60 per cent of the population are the bumiputras."

"[23] The ruling party-owned Utusan Malaysia newspaper criticised the decision to change the BTN curriculum, claiming Nazri was acting on his own and urging the government not to "bow down" to the opposition.

[24] In response, Nazri branded Mahathir's statement "bloody racist," criticising both him and Utusan Malaysia for denying the allegations against BTN: Don't think that people outside do not know about the syllabus based on patriotism for Malays.

"[27] Other Members of Parliament, such as deputy chair of the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club and MP for Kinabatangan, Bung Mokhtar Radin, argued that BTN still served a useful purpose: "I don't see it as racist.

One of the presentation slides had claimed Malay independent publishers to be "anti-establishment", in which their "movement without supervision from the authorities" will "bring a negative effect on the government" and giving birth to "new icons of the young generation that spread extreme and free ideas".

[33] Other slides published by the agency included a slide that examined the performance of the Barisan Nasional (BN) ruling coalition from 1959 to 2014 with racial breakdown of popular votes towards BN and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) seats and also percentages of Muslim and non-Muslim member of parliament (MPs) in Parliament of Malaysia.

[34] Another slide had accused Chinese newspapers of being "fine needles that penetrate the government whilst promoting opposition movements."

DAP was also accused in the slide of controlling the minds of people from Sabah and Sarawak by invoking the issue of the use of the name "Allah" in the context of local Christian presses, and inciting separation of both states from Malaysia.

[35] The slide also claimed that a change in the current government will cause "political instability" in the country, bringing up comparisons with the Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime.

It also argued that "racism can unite a nation or race", whereas the racial minorities in Malaysia "already have their needs fulfilled as entitled under international human rights laws".