National Disgrace

I have the utmost respect for Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye personally and for his leadership to the team of people running the Malaysian National Service (NS), but what he wrote and was published in the STAR today (Sunday, 28Jan07) perturbs me to the core!

What is the matter really with the whole NS concept, planning, implementation and review?

After a good many years of running the program, anyone would have expected the basic teething problems to have been tackled, yet we see basic failures still persisting, from transport arrangements to food and accommodation blunders.

Also, the recruitment of girls for the NS. What's the basis and necessity? It is challenging enough to keep an eye on boys under group behavior in training, combined this with girls in group behavior, and a pair of eyes is not even sufficient!

The last straw that broke my back and compelled me to write is the Chairman of the National Service Training Council's clever reliance on the Health Ministry's "pointing" that, I quote, "...a majority of our youths are actually healthy (more than 95%)" and that it is why it is not viable to conduct medical examinations on all potential trainees.

How unimaginative, uncreative and lacking in "thinking out of the box initiative" with a tinge of irresponsibility that statement and attitude is, if you like.

Safety, security and the avoidance of sickness, injury or death to any and all participants and trainers ought to be paramount priority because human life is priceless!

Please do not insinuate the caring and compassionate intrinsic attributes of us Malaysians!

Medical examination for all potential NS candidates not only protects the individual participants, it also benefits all, provided the relevant parameters are correctly selected and tested. The last thing any NS participant wants is to catch a high contagious and communicable disease (like tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis etc) from living and training in very close proximity and quarters where injuries with open wounds makes it viable for diseases to be passed on from one to the other.

For potential participants who already know they are not healthy, this is not a problem, they would have applied for an exemption with supporting medical certificates, the hidden dangers are for those who are not aware that they are not medically fit for NS training and have not the resources to undergo voluntary medical screening.

If we do not have the resources (which all of us know is untrue, we are not a poor country), then we should not even bother to have a half baked NS programs.

There are so many clinics well distributed all over the nation offering medical screenings and I am sure every General Practitioner will be more than happy to be of service for a reasonable fee. I am also confident that if called upon, the medical profession will be more than willing to contribute their part of the national service. I am confident that all doctors are doctors because they first felt a call to serve. With a little "thinking out of the box", I am sure esteemed organizations like the NS Council would have thought of offering opportunities to doctors to contribute their services to the National Service Program. MMA and individual doctors, please feel free to comment.

The point is simple, if something is worth doing, it is worth doing right, can you disagree on this, Mr. Chairman and members of his Board of Council?