The dust had hardly settled after the tragic death of National Service (NS) trainee Afiq Zuhairi Ahmat Rozal last month when we have another equally tragic death of another trainee, Too Hui Min. If two deaths in less than a month is not serious enough, I don’t know how many more have to lose their lives before the government considers enough is enough.

It must be stressed that NS trainees are young, healthy school-leavers who have no known illness prior to joining the NS. What is common in these deaths is that they show very minimal symptoms and signs and their illness progressed so fast as to be fatal in just a few days. The most likely cause of death in all these cases is an overwhelming infection of some sort.

What looks imminent is that medical personnel attending to them in the initial stages failed to appreciate the seriousness of the illness as the symptoms were non-specific and minimal. The medical personal attending to them were medical assistants (MA) or nurses who are not trained in clinical diagnosis. I am sure if those unfortunate victims were attended to by experienced doctors or specialists, they would have suspected something sinister is setting in.

Why were they not referred to a doctor on their first visit to the clinic? We are well aware that even in the smallest hospital only doctors are allowed to treat patients, not MAs or nurses however senior they may be. Why was this not practiced in the NS camps? Doesn’t this amount to negligence on the part of the medical personnel treating the sick trainees?

These deaths have obviously cast serious doubts on the quality of the training and the safety mechanisms that are in place in the NS. Is the system professional and capable enough to carry this military type of training? Has it placed undue stress on the health of the trainees? How efficient and effective are the medical examinations and resuscitation facilities? How well trained, equipped and motivated are the trainers in providing the training? Have we got to sacrifice a few of our children for each session of NS?

No amount of reassurance will be able to satisfy the parents if it does not address these issues immediately. The NS Department has a lot of soul-searching to do and it must do it without any further delay. It should consider the feedback from parents and the public seriously. Docility on their part will only create suspicion and doubts in the minds of the people as to the real motives of the NS programme

It is very irresponsible of National Service Training Department director-general Abdul Hadi Awang Kecil to reiterate that the NS training programme will not be scrapped just because of one or two deaths. I think he must put himself in the place of the parents who have lost their children before making such insensitive statements.

Abdul Hadi Awang further suggests that the trainees undergo medical check-ups before joining the training programme. He must remember that these fatal illnesses are acute and there is no way even the most sophisticated medical examination will ever detect the illness in advance. It would only be a total waste of taxpayers’ money.

The unacceptably high rate of deaths among young NS trainees is an indication of the failure of the system itself. The risks outweigh the benefits and as an immediate measure to prevent more unnecessary loss of lives the NS must be suspended and a full-scale review instituted.

There is definitely a dire need for racial integration which is so badly lacking in our schools. Such integration programmes should start from the time the children starts schooling. If we cannot achieve racial integration over 11years they are in school, I fail to see how that can be done in just three months after they leave school.