‘Revamp national service guidelines’

It is time that the government and the national service training centre did an objective cost-benefit analysis of the programme, says a parent.

KUCHING: The government should review the procedures and guidelines now in force at the national service centres (PLKN) following an incident in which a sick trainee at Putra Sentosa Camp in Sematan was left without proper medical attention, Sarawak PKR said.

Its grassroots leader, Boniface Willy Tumek, said despite the many complaints from parents nationwide, nothing substantial had been done to improve the procedures, especially those involving health and medical care of the participants.

“As a parent with children bound for one of these camps in the near future, I am extremely disturbed by these incidents and I am very sure every other parent in Malaysia shares my fears.

“This is especially so because attendance by able-bodied conscripts is made mandatory by law and once selected, one cannot opt out,” said Tumek, a committee member of PKR Mas Gading division.

“We call upon Tiki Lafe, the PLKN chairman and the Mas Gading MP, to immediately initiate a thorough review of the procedures and guidelines currently in force in these camps with a view to ensuring that a robust and adequate set of procedures and guidelines is installed and enforced.

“These procedures should include allowing surprise audit visits by personnel of the national service training department and the medical and health services,” he said.

He pointed out that the current safeguards were not sufficient to ensure the safety and well-being of the national service trainees.

“We also urge the authorities to put in place an appraisal system that graduates of these camps can use, in complete confidence, to appraise the individual camps and the usefulness of the programme.

“Such a system will enable the government and the PLKN to do an objective cost-benefit analysis on the programme,” he said.

17 deaths since 2004

He said this was a reasonable demand as some RM80 million of taxpayers’ money was being used to run the 84 national service camps.

“We would like to be assured that every ringgit spent on this programme produces the desired results,” he said.

Tumek said that the incident at Putera Sentosa Camp, which was reported on March 23, was the latest in an increasingly frightening statistics of incidents at these camps.

“In the incident at Putera Sentosa, it would appear that the chronology of events reflected a ‘follow procedures for the sake of following’ approach to medical issues without complying with the ‘spirit’ of the procedures.

“It would also appear that the approach is common to a significant number of reported cases of major incidents involving these national service camps,” he added.

He said that since the introduction of national service in 2004, some 17 fatalities have been reported, with 12 trainees dying in the camps and five more during breaks or within days of completing the programme

In Putera Sentosa, the trainee had to phone his mother for her help as he was sick and could not stand it anymore.

He fell ill with high fever on Feb 12, and was trying to pull through with painkiller.

Five days in hospital

Far from getting better, he was coughing and suffering from diarrhoea.

The mother suggested to the medical assistant that her son be given nebuliser as often prescribed by the family’s paediatrician. But the medical assistant replied it was not necessary.

The mother then consulted their family doctor and was given a letter on what medication to administer and the treatment method, which she e-mailed to the medical assistant. But it was to no avail.

The medical assistant refused to administer the medicine which the mother brought a week later, saying it was not necessary.

The mother also asked that her son be sent to the Lundu district hospital.

According to the mother, the medical assistant initially refused but eventually her son was sent to the hospital where he was given only panadol, piriton and some antibiotics.

Dissatisfied, the parents fetched the boy from the camp and sent him to a private hospital in Kuching where an X-ray and blood test were done.

He was put on saline drips and given nebuliser. He had lost six kilos in weight.

According to the mother, the blood test showed the boy had a viral infection which resulted in fever. He spent five days in the hospital.