NS living conditions 'worse than prison'

Living conditions at a national service (NS) camp in Balik Pulau were “worse than prison”, said trainees who packed their bags and held a demonstration at the camp gates over the matter yesterday.

They reportedly told parents that they were made to sleep on rusty, broken beds and mouldy, stained pillows over the past month, while bath facilities are also damaged, clogged and squalid.

The New Straits Times reported that one trainee told her brother that she was “traumatised” after finding a worm in her food at the White Resort NS Camp.

A photograph published by the daily showed that the trainees were served “poor quality food” consisting of what looked like a cup of rice and gravy, a small piece of unidentifiable meat, crackers and some sambal.

The Star reported that the trainees were served 125 grams of chicken meat but this has since ben reduced to a third.

According to an answer to Parliament in 2008, RM2.37 billion had been spent on the national service programme since it started in 2004, averaging just over RM500 million a year.