After 4 years in existence, the National Service Board is still struggling to
iron out many of its problems. In my personal opinion the root of all these
problems is the attitudes of the people entrusted with the responsibilities to
run the service smoothly. They all treated this as "main main" stuff, afterall
what can you learn in 3 short months? National service in other countries like
Taiwan, Korea and Singapore last for 2 years and more, with proper salary scales
and all. But in Malaysia everybody thinks it is just like a summer camp only.
Then everybody has a rude awakening when Deputy Prime Minister cum Minister of
Defence of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak sacked 3 of the top brass in the
board after a series of fumbles up during the first day of the first intake of
year 2007 series which caused an up raor from the concerned parents. Datuk
Najib's swift and decisive action drives home the message "don't play-play
hah!". And things appears to improve, for the time being at least. My son
happened to be in that first group of the year to report for duty, and he was
assigned to a training camp not in his home state. But my son insisted that we
do not appeal to have him transfer back to the home state because he wanted the
experience. This was the first time in his life to venture away alone, imagine
the anxiety of us parents. But the responsibility awareness of the officials in
charge on that reporting-for-duty day was really worrying the parents. We were
fighting inside ourselves whether to place the safety of our kids in the hands
of these irresponsible people. Some parents took their children home and were
willing to fight it out in the courts. We do not have the resouces to fight the
authority in the court so have to put my son on the plane reluctantly on the
night of the 2nd day. He was on waiting list, luckily some kids opted out so he
boarded the plane on the 2nd day, else he would have to wait for the 3rd day,
4th day...... My son is now home safely now. I can notice a few positive changes
in him. He said that life in the camp is tiring but enjoyable. He even joked
that some of the training are so strenous that he might not be able to last for
another month. I think this is a point that the authority should consider making
some adjustments. So I should say national service is good for kids, only need
to be properly manged. It is very unfortunate that there were some cases that
resulted in death among the female trainees. This has prompted the proposal to
exempt the female youths from national service. I think this is not the right
solution, because in doing so it will imply that our male youths are less
disciplined that the females, which is utterly untrue. Both our male and female
youths need equal amount of training in discipline. I am not an expert, but as a
parent who cares about his kids, I venture to offer my observations here:
-
This is obvious, but I still list it here just in case. Be aware of the
differences between the physique of the male and female; some exercises
which are simple for the males are difficult for the females. So do not
demand them to carry out the same amount of exercises of the same nature.
-
Rest is the best remedy for all, whether for fatigue or for minor illness.
Make sure they have a lot of sleep. This is quite hard to achive as too many
of trainees are staying in one room. Teenage girls are extremely sensitive
about their privacy, asking them to sleep in groups is a torture. Some of
them may have many sleepless nights and suffered in silence, until one day
they just collasp. My teenage girl always locks the door whenever she is in
her room, and her mother always knocks on the door to ask her to open it.
And a war breaks out. This proves one thing: girls treasure their privacy.
-
Girls are naturally less carefree than their male counterparts, they worry
about every thing: pimples, weights, studies,friendship,etc,etc...And they
have another thing to worry about now, to arrange for their further study.
They can only sleep after they have it settled, and they need time-off to
settle those matters. Please allow them to have leaves for doing it, else
they will not be able to sleep at night, and their health may suffer.
-
After a hard day's physical training the body needs nourishments to
replenish the resouces lost. Is the food in the camp providing enough for
this?
-
Bear in mind, every single trainee is an individual, a human being,
moreover, maybe the parents' pet. Please teach them discipline, but don't
take this opportunity to torture them.
National service is neccessary for boys as well as girls.
