I refer to the Malaysiakini report Najib targets 'zero death' in NS programme .
He mentions that from now on, trainers will have to refer all medical problems - even a slight fever - to the nearest hospital. I heaved a great sigh of relief when I read that. But there are still three nagging concerns that are related to the safety of our children.
Firstly is the call for an independent and full public inquiry into any incident of severe physical hurt or death of the trainees. Najib makes absolutely no mention of that. How is he to assure us parents of the safety if the trainers are not held accountable for the serious incidents by a full independent public inquiry? What about the so called 16 death cases?
We must re-open all those cases and punish the management responsible. By his own admission, Najib has implicated that the ‘efficient’ medical units set up by the NS director-general Abdul Hadi, is totally useless.
Without any sort of accountability, I think there will be many more preventable deaths due to mismanagement and the callous attitude of the camp officers in the coming months. Mark my words. Najib’s words of assurance will be nought in the face of his reluctance to establish a mechanism of investigation for serious incidents with respect to the National Service programme.
The second question Najib has not addressed is where is the total Quality Assurance team made up by members of the public to ensure the cleanliness and safety aspects of all the equipment used in the National Service programme? We have complaints of poor water quality, bad food and dengue fever in NS camps and these issues have not been addressed. Bila lagi, Dato’ ?
The third question is the review of the NS curriculum which we as parents deem inappropriate and downright dangerous for our children. If the government wants to institute a Singapore-style two -years mandatory National Service for all youths in the interest of the security of this country, then please do so through the Parliament and I will abide by it.
But please don’t sell this nonsense to teenagers over a short duration of training. We do not think the programme works and further more, it is dangerous to our children. And finally, please stop issuing these nonsensical statements that the trainees ‘love’ the activities and therefore that is reason enough to continue.
If you put up a disco programme in the National Service, I am very sure that the trainees would love it no end but we the parents might not think so. I have heard this silly statement being used too many times that its leads me to think that leaders who rely on such statements should not be given any responsibility of leadership in the very near future.
