Should National Service be scraped?

Recently, my niece, Yin, was very upset as she was ‘too lucky’ to be chosen through a computerized process to attend a 3 month National Service program, failing to attend it would subject her to a fine of up to but not exceeding RM3000, and/or up to six months of jail.

It was estimated that, for every ten persons of 18 year old youth listed on a national database registered with Malaysian ID cards, two conscripts would be picked for National Service.

If given a choice, Yin would choose not to attend it.

She said, “I’m against it as I heard in the news that many people died.”

Her fear was not unfounded. Until June, 2008, there were already 16 cases of death. Yet, it is believed that no proper inquiry was conducted and measures taken to rectify any flaws in the system of conducting the National Service. It is learnt that the program has been plagued with claims of poor management right from its inception. If it was for the Singapore government, action would have been taken long ago to re-structure the national service.

Many parents would like to see that this program scraped or at least suspended until its weaknesses are overcome. If not they had to undergo three months' trauma of worrying about their children’s safety during the training period.

The Penang's Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, urged the Federal Government to abolish the National Service program as the program had not proven its effectiveness but instead caused the deaths of so many students who had been forced to attend the program. The selected National Service trainees should have been given a choice to either participate or back down from the program if the Government cannot ensure the safety of the participants, as said by the Chief Minister. If this was implemented, then the parents of those students who died at the National Service camps would not be able to blame the Government as they had agreed to have their children attend the camp. But since all parents had no choice but to send their children as required by law then the Government has to bear full responsibility and the parents of those dead students should sue the Government for their children's death at the camp. (Star online, Monday, May 12, 2008)

Dr. Azly Rahman, a University lecturer, even went further to suggest that the national service to be stopped immediately and the project should be modified and run by the universities, specifically, by the schools of education and/or schools which deal with the development of youth cultures. (http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/7291/84/ )

Other main controversy issue of Malaysian National Service includes the selection system where the government computer database system picks up the trainees randomly without even knowing about their social status. Some cases include poor teenagers who need to work for their living and young mothers with newborn babies who were selected for the program, which are considered as inhumane. However, selected trainees for more recent sessions with special cases can send letters of appeal to be exempted from the training and will usually be approved.

One other issue is that most parents as well as the public are skeptical that a short period of National Service program can do any good to instill any patriotism or national integration. If eleven years of education in school is not enough to teach our young about moral values, patriotism and tolerance, then what is three months of National Service can achieve? Further more, if the problem of racial polarization was found to pervade educational institutions in Malaysia, then efforts should be taken to address its root cause by overhauling the whole educational system instead.

With so many issues clustering around National Service unresolved, effort to address and resolve the core issue of either scraping or retaining our National Service should be given the utmost priority.