Sunday, April 01, 2007

Thumbs up for LPNK

I have this to add to my previous post because I forgot to mention it. On the day my son was returning home from national service,my opinion on the national service board (LPNK) changed drastically. The way the LPNK officials were conducting things was a huge contrast to the first day when my son was reporting for duty. The number of officials deployed at the airport was increased and the most important difference was that they were dressed in official uniforms. The kids arriving at the airport were also in uniforms and could be easily picked out from other passengers travelling in the air craft with them. They were then ushered to a assembly corner and be counted. My confidence in the LPNK officials' professionism multiplied 100 folds immediately. How I wished it was done this way on the day when my son was boarding the plane, it would have saved us months of worrying. Sybas, LPNK!!!

National Service is equally important for male and female students

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.