Can our children’s safety be guaranteed?

I HEAR that our children may be drafted for the latest version of National Service (NS) beginning next year.

When the previous version of NS was terminated, I heaved a great sigh of relief – and also sadness. Relief because there will be no more children ripped from the safety of our families and placed at a level of care unfit for any child. Sadness because the deaths that occurred in NS over the years which, to my mind, were the fault of the service providers, have not had justice – as far as I know, no one has been held accountable.

I had actually begun my foray into writing to the media when I heard about these deaths. I remember writing 11 letters targeting the commanders and head honchos of the camps for negligence and callous indifference.

One of my children was a participant in the first NS batch. I heard many unreported stories circulated by parents about poisonous snake bites, unclean bathing and drinking water that caused rashes, fights between races and even sexual harassment by camp commanders. The worst, of course, were the stories of deaths due to “misadventure”.

When my child began coughing in her second month of the programme, I asked her if she had seen the medical officer. She said the medical officer gave her an over-the-counter painkiller; upon inquiring, I discovered that the medical officer was actually a clerk. Why? Who knows? Maybe the commanders were too cheap to pay for real medical personnel.

When her cough persisted in the second week I visited, I asked permission to take my daughter to the clinic. When I was refused, I did what any sane father would do, I took her out without permission. I drove her to our family clinic and she was diagnosed with acute bronchitis. I kept her at home for one week and when she recovered, I sent her back to the camp. Throughout the week, I waited for disciplinary action as a result of my decision, but no one came knocking on the door.

At a theoretical and philosophical level, I am all for NS, albeit one that is safe, that has meaning and that would produce the best citizens for nation-building.

It is my opinion that, so far, NS has failed in achieving any of this. Why do I think so?

Here’s one incident that reinforced the NS failure to me: The threat made by Gamis, the Malaysian Muslim Students Coalition, against Dong Zong in 2020 when the Chinese educationist group wanted to hold a meeting to discuss the introduction of Jawi in vernacular schools. Other than that, we can all see the massive support for politicians playing on racial and religious issues among young people.

Out of curiosity, I interviewed a few of my daughter’s friends who had also attended NS to find out how many non-Malay friends they made, and the answer was zero.You see why I think it was a failure?

I truly believe that our education system, our politics and our places of living have created and continue to create a society that is more polarised than ever. Which is why the idea of putting together a group of children from all races and faiths – so that they can eat and struggle together to complete tasks for nation-building and human brotherhood – is critical.

I think that we should put 10,000 youths through NS every year. Hopefully after 10 years, we can turn the country around with a critical mass of the population trained to be bridges among our races, faiths and politics.

These 100,000 NS participants will be our change. But to do this, we must ensure a safe and meaningful ecosystem in the camps.

We need a curriculum that is designed not by military personnel but by true experts in young adult education.

I propose a relearning of history with four two-hour modules that create a sense within our children that other races or religions are not to blame for the dark passages of our stories, and that they are, in fact, the reason for our achievements.

We need four two-hour modules of spiritual education that teaches the participants compassion, acceptance and that everyone’s blood is red; that we can live peacefully together while praying at different houses of worship.

Finally, we must educate the participants against the politics of hatred and populism to ensure the country does not fall into the hands of those undeserving of leadership.

The question is, do we have that curriculum, or at least something resembling it? Can we parents have a look and a say in the curriculum that seems to have been developed behind closed doors?

Secondly, who exactly will monitor the safety of the camps and the activities and who will be held responsible for any incidents?

The lives of our children will once again be at risk.

I no longer have to worry about my own children for all have grown, but my grandson is still a teenager.

How can I trust his safety to an NS programme under a military that allowed the cruel bullying murder of army cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain to happen on its watch in 2017? And now I hear there’s a viral video of another cadet at Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia being bullied recently, in the same way even, being burnt by an iron.

So no, at this time, NS does not get my vote of confidence.

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies at UCSI University.

The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.