A concerned Malaysian writes about current affairs in Malaysia. If you like this site, please tell your relatives and friends. WE have the POWER TO CHANGE MALAYSIA. If you want to read earlier posts, please remove the "2" from this URL

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Maybe NS Stands for “National Slumber”

My regular readers will know that in principle I have been against the national service scheme as it is trying to solve the national integration problem years too late.

My opinion is that there should be a more concerted effort by all parties to get at least 80% of all Malaysian children studying together for at least 10 years from primary school right up to the SPM exams just like it used to be until the 70s.

We have had the current NS program for at least 2 years now and it seems the authorities cannot even get this program operating without major hitches.

One worries about the calibre of the people in charge of planning and logistics when even simple registration procedures and transport arrangements can go awry.

Parents cannot help but fear for their children’s welfare when buses without insurance are used to transport trainees. The MB can afford to settle the summons but what happens if these buses get involved in an accident? Who will compensate the loss of life and limb?

Why are such compromises on safety tolerated by the NS officials?
There is no need to jeopardise lives when they could have postponed the start of the camp especially if many officers were away on leave or affected by the recent floods.
Losing a few days in camp will not diminish any benefits the trainees will acquire during the 3-month long program.

After all the Outward Bound School operates a regular 25-day course that also develops teamwork and leadership skills.

Pardon my saying so but I have the feeling that in Malaysia NS actually means “National Slumber”



photo:Thanks to The Star

2 comments:

1Portal untuk 1Malaysia said...

Thank you HJ Angus, I have linked your blog to mine. I also noticed that you're a frequent commenter on Kit Siang's blog. Keep up the good work. Good blog you have :)

National Service is a disaster indeed.

1Portal untuk 1Malaysia said...

Dear HJ Angus,

If you check out my blog's archives, i wrote a trilogy of articles in BM, titled Bab 1, 2 and 3. Only a lil bit of english in between. Thanks for you comments anyway. Appreciate it.