By Hafidz Baharom, The Nut Graph
(Source: scottthong.wordpress.com)
I HOPE everyone has had a wonderful holiday. I wish everyone Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Please forgive my transgressions as I offer forgiveness, too.
While we're all still probably feasting on Aidilfitri specialties, I'm sure Jane Lim's family is not exactly in a celebratory mood. If you missed the news on 23 Sept 2008, Jane's family is adamant about not sending her to national service camp because their son, Ricky, died nine days after completing his three-month national service on 6 Sept.
According to Ricky's parents, their son had complained about the camp's hygiene and yellowish water supply.
National Service Department director-general Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang Kechil has said the department has no authority to exempt 17-year-old Jane from national service because of her brother's untimely death.
Right to worry
But parents do have a right to worry about their children's security within the national service programme, especially since the programme has not been without incident since its inception four years ago.
For example, on 28 Feb 2004, a 17-year-old female trainee was reportedly raped in a car by one of the trainers from Merang Camp in Setiu.
Never mind war — our National Service trainees are dying at
camp (© Jafaris Mustafa /Dreamstime)
There have also been four incidents of mass food poisoning in three separate camps over the years. In 2005, in the Port Dickson camp, trainees and instructors, numbering 60, were afflicted with food poisoning. On 30 Dec 2007, trainees in a camp in Penang also suffered from food poisoning.
In the most recent case, Kem Barracuda in Terengganu reported that nine trainees had fallen ill due to food poisoning on 23 May 2008. Six days later, the number had grown to 67 people from the same camp.
Other cases, reported in the media, are as follows:
11 May 2008: Too Hui Mun, 18, complained of stomach difficulties that turned out to be caused by a colon infection. She's the 16th person to perish during National Service training.
3 Sept 2007: Mohamad Rafi Ameer, 18, had a fever and a swollen leg after falling during his training stint. An International Herald Tribune report suggests negligence on the part of camp supervisors.
18 Jan 2007: Iliameera Azlan, 17, died due to breathing difficulties. According to Bernama: "Iliameera reportedly did not wake up at 5.30am as required, and when found at 6.30am having breathing difficulty, the instructor of the camp rushed her to the hospital. She is believed to have died on the way to hospital."
Please note that the camp waited an hour after roll call at 5.30am before finding her.
9 May 2004: T Saravanan, 18, from Taiping, Perak drowned while swimming with another 40 trainees.
In-camp fights
The most stunning case of death in a national service camp occurred on 22 April 2006 when Haziq Jaafar, 17, died after getting into a fight with another trainee.
What were they fighting over? A cigarette.
(© sxc.hu)
It would seem that both the Tak Nak campaign and the checks for contraband in national service camps failed to prevent Haziq's untimely death.
Pardon me, but all these reported cases demonstrate that "encouraging unity" and "training NS students for emergencies" are merely rhetoric.
In another story of the national service's failure to encourage "unity", an all-out brawl erupted between 50 trainees in a camp close to Kluang on 10 Aug 2008.
What caused the brawl? Teasing.
According to press reports, when the teasing intensified, chairs were tossed and fists flew - something I think we've seen happen in the MCA once.
A National Service first-day cover produced by Pos Malaysia
in 2004 Worth the deaths?
So what exactly was the purpose of National Service, to begin with?
According to their website (and my translation capabilities), the objectives are:
- To increase youths' patriotism
- To foster racial unity and national integrity
- To build positive character through good values
- To encourage volunteerism
- To create a young generation with physical and mental prowess, and self-confidence.
I will not be overly pessimistic, but I would like to ask those parents who support national service whether such objectives are worth the sacrifice of 16 lives?
And for those who have yet to send their kids off, and for taxpayers who are single and are not even thinking of procreating, is the RM600 million spent in 2007 for national service a good investment?
Would people agree with the huge investments needed if they knew just how much it was costing tax payers? According to the Auditor-General, national service shirkers and rigid contracts have caused the government losses of up to RM110.1 million from 2004 to 2007.
The Auditor-General also found that the Beringin Beach camp was unsuitable because of flooding during high tide. But didn't anybody notice this before? And how was that possible?
For the Wawasan camp in Sabah, camp operators told the audit team it was difficult to obtain fresh fish for the trainees' menu, but the audit team found it otherwise at the Kota Kinabalu market. Does this mean that these camps would rather lie about why the food isn't fresh and risk food poisoning than feed trainees properly?
The Auditor-General's report also found that t-shirts, track pants, baseball caps and sports shoes supplied under contracts worth more than RM41 million were of low quality.
That's not all. There are also cases of illegally built camps.
(Source: uncyclomedia.org) Sacrificing our youth
What all these show is that in the haste to implement the national service programme, we have sacrificed the lives, health and safety of our youths; lost a couple of billion ringgit; and may even have flouted the rule of law and ignored the need for transparent governance.
While I admit that the thought of getting our youth to be patriotic (or subservient, depending on one's perspective) may be a good idea, I, for one, see this programme as nothing more than a farce to allow opportunists to make money at the expense of trainees' safety and lives.
If, indeed, cronies and lobbyists of the current government are making money from national service, then this government may be as guilty as the American government in sending their citizens to perish in Iraq for oil and profit.
If that were the case, national service, in my opinion, could be deemed as "national slaughter". 
Ahmad Hafidz Baharom is a paradox. He's an anti-smoking chain smoker, an environmentalist who leaves his office lights on, a centrist who's a lalang, and a twenty-something yuppie who dreams of being a slacker. Basically, he's a lovable moron.
written by miwaki, October 07, 2008 09:36:07
We love to see their numbers get reduce after the completion of the 3 months training.
written by humanist, October 07, 2008 09:38:53
-Group together and take the action against Ministry of Defense collectively.
-Together, collectively file a mega lawsuit against Najib Razak.
-Together, initiate a Royal petition to ask for immediate suspension of the National Service.
-Demand to publish the name of the owner , that owns the training camp that led to reckless death. Together bring law suit against the perpetrators.
If any judges that dare to strike out the suit against Najib, Sue the judges for wrongful death also. Lump those perpetrators together and make sure they have no peaceful night to sleep. Make sure the blood of those lost is not wasted. This should send a grim message to other judges too.
The action must not stopped until they are brought to book.
-Al
written by buaya, October 07, 2008 09:45:26
written by justice, October 07, 2008 09:54:00
written by MalaysianUnited, October 07, 2008 09:59:52
Juga sokong Indianputra..
Program Khidmat Negara adalah bagus sekali..tapi pengurusannya yang tak betul.
Time untuk 'BERSIH'!!!
Bersihkan program ini dari orang yang tidak mendokong falsafah negara!!!
written by Engineer, October 07, 2008 10:01:17
Lam Tai, what's your say ?
written by ahmadneil, October 07, 2008 10:40:38
written by Sean E, October 07, 2008 10:41:23
The programme will be on as long as BeEnd is in power.
written by ahmadneil, October 07, 2008 10:41:29
written by liko, October 07, 2008 10:57:46
written by Xerxes, October 07, 2008 11:46:41
One can read between the lines why Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye resigned as Chairman of the NS council and his parting words were very telling indeed.
These were needless deaths of young people in the prime of their lives. Furthermore, each death brings immense sorrow and pain to the parents and their loved ones who had someone dear to them snatched away cruelly. But what do those running the programs think. To them, they have desensitized themselves to the extent that each death is just another statistic and another faceless number. That is why the DG responded with that unfeeling, callous and insensitive remark about Jane not entitled to exemption despite her brother's death soon after NS. Only people who has lost all human feelings will think and talk in that manner.
The whole program was originally conceived as a scam for some people to make money. Remember at the onset, the entire program was outsourced to a retired Brigadier General who not only set up the camps but also drew up the initial training program? Only God knows how the Govt think that he was qualified to do so. Or was it motivated by money? Only after all the scandal of deaths and other blunders was the program taken back and run by MINDEF. Still the problems of transport fiascos, more deaths and food poisoning continued.
No amount of propaganda will convince those who knows the truth. My nephew who attended one such camp told me of the racial polarisation the moment he reported to camp. Though no actual fights broke out in his camp, he told me that there were frequent racial confrontations between the youths including ugly incidents where the youths were armed with metal pipes ready for a face-off. Luckily cool heads prevailed and nothing serious happened but all it takes is a single spark and it could have easily resulted in multiple deaths.
Go back to the schools where it all begins. Patriotism, racial harmony and all those virtues we are seeking starts when the kids are young. Teach them right from young and we will have no need for this NS crap.
written by buaya, October 07, 2008 11:54:51
When recently pressured by more calls to suspend the program due to the 16th death, Najib responded that it was not feasible to stop the program since "many parties are involved"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Najib_Tun_Razak
written by KweN, October 07, 2008 12:22:02
they don't care about the amount of life's lost in NS
they don't care about any of the consequences and will just talk about 'upgrading and improving' NS
but
what they do care is the amount of taxpayer's $$ they rake in every day
written by shatis, October 07, 2008 13:14:47
Kursus Kenegaraan is all about malay supremacy,Islam and UMNO. They dont instill patriotism. They scare the malays saying non malays will take away this land from them if given equal rights. They talk so abrasively on the face of non malays. It is more about American invasion of Iraq and Jewish attack on Palestine. All their power point slides about riots and wars in Muslim countries.
They teach twisted history about our country and if any of the non malay question it, they threaten them with May69 incidence. Some of the BTN guys even resorted to tell things like, if non Malays want to kill all Malays in this country it will take 7 hrs but for malays it will only take 7 secs. Even some Malays cant take the way these BTN guys talk bout non malays on their face. At the end of this Kursus, They will show a slide of 1998 riot in Indon where a chinese man chopped ruthlessly by the Indon idiots while the police and army guys watching and only to help after he was chopped to pieces. This is clearly to warn the non malays.
Imagine 17 yrs old and 18 yrs watching this.. They instill racist thoughts in the mind of malays and fear in Non malays mind.
And guess who this BTN guys are, Ex army guys run the camp and the teachers in schools are the tenaga penggerak who give all the lectures. So now you know why the Malays Teachers are so racists.. Ask any government staff and they tell you all bout their experience with Kursus Kenegaraan BTN.
written by JackWang, October 07, 2008 15:07:18
The trainers are part-timers. I don't know how much they know about running such a programme. If we want to fulfill the 5 objectives as stated in the article, then get all our students to join a uniform unit in school. That's what people in my age group did in the 60s and 70s.
Any deaths that occurred in these programmes is one death too many. This is not the kind of National Service where one is trained to handle guns and be in combat mode. The deaths that occurred are food poisoning, infections, fights, avoidable accidents and the likes. They suggest a total lack of professionalism in running this programme. Outward Bound school in Lumut runs them better.
To say that the programme cannot be scrapped because there are too many parties involved is hogwash. Why can't these parties be told that the programme is scrapped and their services or supplies are no longer required, unless there is some activities that have gone on behind the scene that cannot see the light of day.
Cheers.
written by carribeanking7, October 07, 2008 15:07:46
Vijay Kumar Murugavell | May 28, 08 4:19pm
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/83574
written by DanielYahya, October 07, 2008 15:22:07
Scrap NS and use money for scholarships
Vijay Kumar Murugavell | May 28, 08 4:19pm
1
I rather rot in jail than send my children to NS.
written by Steven Tan, October 07, 2008 17:54:47
You got it correctly,.....it's to enrich
I wish somebody can comeout with the actual info on who's getting the tender for NS Uniform and etc.
written by advocatusdiaboli, October 07, 2008 18:50:43
). When unity can't be instilled in our children at school itself then what unity are you talking about in National Servicelah? Rhetorics like "Ketuanan Melayu", the racist statement from that Ahmad Ismail fella and Kerismuddin frothing from the mouth waving a keris to the chant of bathing it with chinese blood and so on...are these antics any good in instilling unity? Bloody hypocrites! The Kursus Kenegaraan by BTN what is that? BTN itself is sowing this disunity by dividing us. So what Naotinal Service lah? As I see it this National Service thingy is just a scam to enrich some cronies at the expense of the taxpayers ringgit and the precious lifes of our young kids. Can the lives of the teenagers who have died thus far be returned back? The Government itself is guilty in these deaths. So take your National Service and stuff it up your nether regions lah.
written by thewayicit, October 07, 2008 22:04:51
written by Sabahfan, October 08, 2008 20:31:01
at end of every 3 month camp the newspapers will show smiling face of the 'graduates" with full praise of how good the camp was blah balah balah...
yeah, friend amongst all races for three months only
what happens after that?
look for a job, the non moslems goes back to being second class
enter universities, well the non moslems are even deprived of lecture notes
oh forget it if you talk about Uitm, sorry non bumi cannot enter..
RASCIsM EVERY WHERE
so what for spend so much of our money to train our youths into nationalism when they are surrounded by rascist policies the minute they leave camp?
BULLLLLLLLL LAH UMNO.... JUST AN EXCUSE TO SPENT OUR MONEY TO FEED YOURSELVES AND CRONIES
CAN SOMEBODY LEAK ALL THE CONTRACT SECRETS PLEASE??
Now I ask you MT commenters to think... again.
if they're not in it, why should our children be?