National Service: Get politicians to join first

 Let me be clear from the start. I have never been a fan of the national service programme since its inception during the BN regime.

The reason is there are three countries I know of that have national service - Israel, South Korea, and Singapore.

Suffice it to say that the first two nations are always in “war mode”, with South Korea fearing invasion from North Korea.

As for Singapore, it was understood the nation’s populace feared for its safety upon separation from Malaysia in 1965. Hence, its government made it compulsory for all its citizens to undergo national service to prepare for any eventualities.

So my question to our government is… who are we up against? The last I checked, we are actually up against each other due to rising polarisation.

And who made that happen over the decades? It’s none other than our very own political leaders, who would not think twice to demonise anyone just for their lust for power.

So instead of compelling teenagers to attend the course, don’t you feel the likes of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang are more deserving to attend such courses given their incendiary comments?

Meanwhile, Harian Metro quoted Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof as saying the programme will include 90 percent military-style training and 10 percent civics.

This, according to Fadillah, was necessary to create gallant and patriotic youths in the country.

Note the 90 percent military-style training. Again comes my question. Are we waging war against anyone?

Now, let’s look at the cost. According to Defence Minister Mohamad Hasan, the revived national service programme would cost less than RM100 million a year, as opposed to RM500 million in the previous years.

Now, I’m neither a minister nor a high-ranking government servant. However, I think I can offer a solution on how we can save RM100 million yearly and still nurture our youths to be patriotic and respect Malaysia’s diversity.

How about incorporating the values within the education system? Why can’t our education minister, higher education minister, national unity minister, and religious affairs minister form a committee and come up with a programme within the school syllabus to support such an endeavour?

It’s a no-brainer actually. If you want to inculcate certain values in our youngsters, it should start from the schooling age… not when they are already 18 or 19, when they may have a fixed mindset on issues affecting them - given that our education system doesn’t really promote critical thinking among students.

And the government need not fork out RM100 million a year to finance this. The Education Ministry alone received RM58.7 billion under Budget 2024. As such, the ministry could just set aside the same sum from the allocation for this measure.

Seriously speaking, this looks like another attempt to burn taxpayers’ money. Instead of reviving the national service, I recommend the government focus on improving the falling education quality and address the high number of SPM leavers who are disinterested in pursuing higher education.

These are pressing issues as not only would they affect the country’s economy in the future, but they would also affect our youngsters’ future.

And experts would agree when I say economic uncertainty often gives rise to discontent - which could easily be manipulated by self-serving individuals, like politicians, to sow discord among the populace. Am I the only one who is seeing a pattern here?

In my view, reviving the national service programme has nothing to do with inculcating patriotism whatsoever. It’s just a patchwork to address - or perhaps, hide - a huge problem in our society.

Our education system, healthcare, economy… you name it. They all badly need new ideas and bold reforms for rejuvenation to meet critical challenges in an uncertain future.

Instead, we are reviving a programme that was stopped years back. If the past national service programme was such a success, why does polarisation persist, with the police issuing multiple warnings against anyone raising the race, religion, and royalty (3R) issues very often?

Buck up, unity government. We need fresh ideas and political will to initiate real reforms, not recycled measures that had little success. - Mkini

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G VINOD is a member of the Malaysiakini team.