THE government is planning to revive the National Service Training Programme or PLKN (“Govt plans to revive National Service programme”, The Star, Nov 24; online at bit.ly/star_national). While the objectives might look good on paper, serious consideration must be given to affordability, timing, and the possibility of better and cheaper alternatives.
PLKN started in 2004 when Datuk Seri Najib Razak was the Defence Minister and was dissolved in 2018 by the Pakatan Harapan government. It was reported that RM8.43bil of taxpayers’ money had been spent during the programme’s 14-year period, out of which 43% went towards renting training camps. A total of 885,956 youths had participated in the training.
