Question

Why did the Malaysian Government introduce National Service? Discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of National Service. Which do you support? Why?

Contents 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 1 0 . 1 1 . Introduction Advantages versus Disadvantages Discussion Conclusion Appendix A: Summary of Major Incidents Appendix B: Newspaper Cutting on a Coma Case Appendix C: A General Time Table of PLKN Appendix D: Budgets of PLKN 2004-2007 Appendix E: Distribution of PLKNs Camps Appendix F: Pictures of Activities in PLKN References : : : : : : : : : : : page 2 page 3 to 6 page 7 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 10 page 11 page 11 17 page 18

INTRODUCTION Malaysian National Service Training Program, which is known Program Latihan Khidmat Negara (PLKN) in Malay, is our countrys national service, which was first proposed in the year of 2001. In the following year, on the 30th of October, the Cabinet has finally agreed to establish a Cabinet Committee on National Service, which is chaired by the Minister of Defense to investigate matters related to legislation, curriculum, facilities and financial provisions necessary for implementation of National Service Training Program (quoted from PLKNs official website).

As PLKN was first proposed, the target group was to be all teenagers who have just taken their SPM, or are 18 years old in the year of 2004, however, due to lack of resources and insufficient infrastructure facilities, the target group was then narrowed down to about 20 percent of the original number, chosen randomly through a computerized process. It is also notable that the program was originally planned as a two-year-program, but due to the mentioned reasons, it was later reduced to one year, then to half a year, and eventually ended up to its present three-monthlength. Following are the objectives of the program as published officially by the Department of National Service, or Jabatan Latihan Khidmat Negara (JLKN):

1To enhance the spirit of patriotism amongst the younger generation. 2To foster and to promote national unity and national integration. 3To develop positive characteristics in the younger generation by the instillation of moral values. 4To instil the spirit of volunteerism in the younger generation. 5To develop a more vigorous, active, intelligent and confident young generation. From the five objectives listed above, it can be plainly observed that the government is very keen in creating a healthy new generation. It is also observed that the government concerns a lot on the problems arising from time to time between different races, and that the government wish that by hosting this program, national unity can be enforced. This program was therefore started in December 2003 with 85 thousands teenagers participating, and it has continued for every year since then. The program had begun in the hope that it would be a successful way to encourage positive relationships between teenagers from different racial and ethnic groups.

While the government is insisting that the program will help in developing a healthier new generation, however, there are other parties who suggest that the program has brought about many problems to the country and its people. In this paper, we are going to state both the major advantages and disadvantages of PLKN, and discuss if the program worth its cost.

Advantages versus Disadvantages Everything has its pros and cons, so does the Malaysian National Service Training Program. Realizing that pros and cons are often interrelated and therefore cannot be understood separately, its wise to discuss about them together. Supposedly, the objectives of a program are to be the programs advantages, therefore let us start by looking at the objectives stated in the earlier section, and discuss if they have been reached. The first objective is to enhance the spirit of patriotism amongst the younger generation. Looking at the part of the younger generation that has participated in the program, we can hardly tell if they are more patriotic than those who have not participated in the program. The program might has enhance the spirit of patriotism in a very small number of its participants, but as what we can see, those whose spirit being not enhanced seriously outnumbered those whose are, and this lead us to doubt the validity of the program in enhancing the spirit of patriotism amongst its participants. For this reason, I exclude the first objective from the list of advantages brought by PLKN.

The second objective is to foster and to promote national unity and national integration. Well, the objective has certainly been reached to a certain extent. As the participants of the program include all racial and ethnic groups, it allows teenagers from different backgrounds to meet and to know each other better via direct interactions. The activities of the program which highly demand cooperation amongst group members have undoubtedly tie the young people together, in pursuing their goals. The fact that the program allows teenagers from different racial and ethnic groups to stay closely together; sharing same foods and living under same shelters, can eventually lead to a better understanding of the others cultures and traditions amongst the participants. In short, the

program helps in developing a better understanding between different racial and ethnic groups, leading to national unity and national integration.

The third objective is to develop positive characteristics in the younger generation by the instillation of moral values. Note that it is widely known that people s personalities and characteristics are almost impossible to be altered by any mean, not to say simply by a threemonth-program. The program has a character building module in which the instructors are supposed to instil positive concepts and moral values deep into the participants souls, however, how is this possibly done within three month? The character building activities arranged by the program have long been criticised as kindergartens activities, whereas some people pointed out that character building should be done at primary and secondary levels; not at the late teenage. The activities might work very well in providing chances for the participants to interact, they have 3

however, not reached their original objectives. With these arguments, I exclude the third objective from the list of advantages brought by PLKN. The fourth objective is to instil the spirit of volunteerism in the younger generation. This objective seems to be really far away from reality, as there is not actually a single activity being arranged in the program, such that it will help in instilling the spirit of volunteerism in the participants. Instead, several talks are given to the participants, where the instructors try their best in persuading the participants to sign up for several voluntary organizations, such as Rakan Cop, Pertahanan Awam Sukarela etc. In these talks, the instructors merely inform the participants about the benefits from joining such organizations, and try their best in luring the participants to sign up. It is important to realize that even if the participants have indeed joined some voluntary organizations, they might have only joined them for the sakes of their benefits, with no or little spirit of volunteerism being actually involved. Moreover, even though there are actually some would-be voluntary activities in the community service module of the program, but most of those activities are merely activities of bringing the participants to some voluntary organisations for trips, without the participants actually participating in any voluntary activity. I therefore exclude the fourth objective from the list of advantages brought by PLKN.

The fifth objective is to develop a more vigorous, active, intelligent and confident young generation. Again, this objective is supposed to be obtained by the character building activities, and as I have mentioned earlier, those activities do not seem to be functioning well. Moreover, there are no obvious differences between the characteristics of those who have participated in the program and those who have not. For these reasons, I exclude the fifth objective from the list of advantages brought by PLKN.

Before I continue on other benefits brought by PLKN that are not listed in the objectives, do realize that amongst all five objectives of the program, only one of them has been actually reached, and its only to a certain degree; not fully. Even though not considered as the main objectives of the program, the other positive consequences brought by the program ought not to be overlooked. One of the most significant advantages of the program is that all participants will obtain precious experiences that they are not likely to obtain elsewhere. It is not difficult to realize that many teenagers nowadays do not really have any experience being away from home for more than a month, and therefore PLKN works as a mean to teach teenagers the way of being independent. Staying away from home for such a long time will makes teenagers realize the warmth in their home that they would not normally notice, and this indirectly helps in teaching them a lesson of life on independence and family ties. 4

Besides, participants are given chances in assessing firearms in the program, where they are taught how to fire. There are also other activities including forest adventure, flying fox, high ropes etc. which most teenagers have little chances to experience. Also, the experience of living together with people who are very different from themselves is undoubtedly a very precious experience for all participants, where they get to know lots of new friends, and learn new cultures, traditions and knowledge. Such chances also make them come to realize that there are all kinds of people in their country, or even, around the world, with huge varieties; the participants will get to know all kind of personalities and be exposed more to the outside world. Hence, PLKN greatly benefits its participants in the sense that it provides chances for them to learn new knowledge through experiences.

Besides, its also notable that PLKN actually keeps teenagers from wasting their post-SPM holidays on some non-productive activities, such as sticking to their computers, hanging around with their friends in hypermarkets while doing nothing in particular, or even worse, performing vandalisms in public places. It is obvious that the program works in a way such that it provides post-SPM teenagers with meaningful activities, filling up their free time. Also, the program pays its participants 150 ringgits per months so that these teenagers actually earn money instead of wasting money during their holidays. More importantly, even though not easily noticed, however if viewed from sociological perspective, the program actually keeps these teenagers from taking up many of the part time jobs that are available, and this indirectly help in decreasing the rate of unemployment.

On the other hand, the programs management has long been criticised by many parties, especially those who has participated in the program, and the parents. One of the most frequently criticised aspects is about the food provided for the participants. According to JLKN, each participant is provided foods that cost twenty five ringgits each day, yet, as describe by most of the participants from various camps, the food they are provided with each day cost less than fifteen ringgits, suggesting that there might be corruption taking place in the program s management, or perhaps, the camps managements. Besides, many participants reflected that the programs time management is considerably poor, causing the participants to have no chance in doing certain activities, particularly high ropes and forest adventure. The poor time management directly makes the program a waste of time, as described by many participants.

However, poor time management is not the only factor making the program a waste of time. Some people argued that in terms of money earned, a teenager can earn more than six hundred ringgits a month working as a part-time worker, which is four times the money they will earn by 5

participating in PLKN. Others argued that the program prevents the participants from entering higher education directly after their SPM, and this indirectly causes the participants to lag behind their peers. Defenders instead pointed out that the participants actually gain immeasurable advantages in the program and therefore the time is not wasted, yet, they have left us pondering whether those so-called immeasurable advantages worth the time. Three month is considered very short for a national service program, yet it can be very long and productive if a teenager does not participate in the program and instead spend her time in her higher education wisely.

Another worth discussing disadvantage of PLKN is about its effectiveness and its efficiency. As discussed earlier, amongst all five objectives of the program, only one of them is partially reached. This shows us that the program is lack of effectiveness and has to be improved so that its objectives can all be achieved. Besides, its good to realize that the benefits brought by this threemonth-long-program dont seem to worth the time; the program will only be highly efficient if and only if there are effective modules and good time management so that the program will result in more benefits. Moreover, according to Wikipedia, the government spend more than five hundred million ringgits each year since the year of 2004 ( refer to Appendix D), but is the program worth such a huge amount of investment? Such an ineffective and inefficient program certainly doesnt worth it. In short, the program is a waste of our countrys wealth.

Last but not least, the safety of the participants while participating in the program is, conventionally, in great concern of their parents. Since 2004, there have been two rape cases, two mass lost in jungle cases, four mass food poisoning cases, two mass high fever cases, and uncountable racial bulling and brawl cases in several PLKNs camps (refer to Appendix A). The situation deteriorated as the 16 and the 17 death of the programs participants took place earlier in this year (Wikipedia.org). Considering all those dangers a participant might encounter while participating in the program, it is not hard to come out with the question asking what is the reason for us to encourage a program that would put the future of our country into danger; who knows if the deceased would one day become great leaders of our country if they did not die in the program?
th th

In short, the participants safeties should be observed lest more tragedy taking places.

Discussion The authors support neither the advantages, nor the disadvantages of PLKN. We are impressed by the positive intentions of the program, yet we are concern about the troubles it has brought about, however, the advantages and disadvantages of the program is not measurable and therefore, no one should judge the worthiness of the program by putting them on a prejudiced balance. In the authors points of view, PLKN needs to be improved so that its main goals can all be achieved, and that it will bring about less disadvantages. We have only stated the major consequences of the program in the earlier section, while there are lots of minor consequences that are not discussed or even touched in this paper, yet we daresay that with these major consequences stated, it is enough for us to see the entire picture of PLKN. However, in our opinion, we believe that it is not for us to judge whether if the program worth it cost; the only thing we would say is that, we hope that the government would has the program improved to an acceptable level as soon as possible; we hope that the program will achieved higher effectiveness, efficiency, and validity.

Moreover, the authors are also keen to urge the critics to stop exaggerating on the disadvantages of PLKN, as how they are doing all the time since the program has ever proposed in the year of 2001. No one can deny the disadvantages brought about by the program, but there is no point in exaggerating the disadvantages of PLKN, as such actions will only put the society in chaos. Also, the authors are keen to remind the critics that amongst all those who have participated in the program, majority of them actually confessed that they had collected numerous precious experiences while participating in the program; there is no way to deny that the program has after all, given the participants lots of benefits and these benefits ought not to be neglected, or purposely overlooked.

Last but not least, it is worth realizing that the program will only benefit a participant if and only if the participant has a positive attitude, instead of a negative attitude. Participants who have learned from the critics to hate or dislike PLKN will definitely fail to gain anything from the program since they have no interest in doing so ever since they first stepped into their camps. So why, then, should critics continue criticizing, overemphasizing, and exaggerating on the disadvantages and troubles brought about by PLKN, since it is these actions that are preventing the program from directly benefiting its participants, and indirectly benefiting the country and its population?

Conclusion In conclusion, no one should judge if PLKN is worthy or if it is not. Both the advantages and disadvantages ought not to be ignored. The government should take actions as soon as possible in improving the program.

7 Appendix A: Summary of Major Incidents in PLKN

Year Incidents Rape, Merang Camp, Setiu, Terengganu, on 28 February. A 17-year-old female participant was raped by Corporal Zuki Mohd, a physical module

2004

instructor at her camp. Lost in jungle, Ovai Wawasan Camp, Papar, Sabah, on 21 February. Around 600 members of the camp, including both participants and instructors, were lost for almost 12 hours after following the wrong trail. Food poisoning, PDS Resort Camp, Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan, on 16

2005

May. 60 members of the camp, including both participants and instructors were food poisoned. Food poisoning, Sri Impian Camp, Sungai Bakap, Penang, on 30 December. A number of participants were food poisoned on the first day at their camp. Lost in jungle, Kem Lagenda Gunung Ledang, Jasin, Malacca, on 30 April. 23 participants lost their way during a jungle trekking exercise. High fever, Kem Desaru Gerak Khas, Kota Tinggi, Johor, on 31 May. 58 participants suffered from high fever after a two-day jungle trekking exercise. Food poisoning, Kem Barracuda, Setiu Agro, Terengganu, on 29 May. 67 participants were food poisoned on 28 May. A week after, 9 other participants

2007

2008

from the same camp suffered the same ailment (stomach-ache). Food poisoning, Kem Barracuda, Setiu Agro, Terrenganu, on 23 May. 9 participants fell ill due to food poisoning. Outbreak of unknown fever, Kem PLKN Jiwa Murni, Semanggol, Perak, in late April. Around 90 participants experienced an unknown fever. Rape, Lake Chini Resort Camp, Lake Chini, Pahang, on 23 June. A 18-yearold ethnic Chinese trainee was alleged to have been sexually assaulted by

2009

more than 20 unidentified men in her camp. Racial brawl, Lake Chini Resort Camp, Lake Chini, Pahang, on 27 June. A racial brawl involving around 100 participants occurred in the canteen. Harassment, Sri Impian Camp, Sungai Bakap, Penang, in mid January. A Sikh

2010

youth woke up discovering his hair was cut by 50 to 60 cm while he was asleep in his dormitory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_National_Servi ce

Appendix B: Newspaper Cutting (Coma Case)

The Star 2011-02-06 9

Appendix C: A General Time Table of PLKN

Shared by a Post-PLKN Participant on the Internet

Appendix D: Budget of PLKN from 2004 to 2007 Year 2004 2005 2006 2007 Total Budget (RM) 608.6 million 604.8 million 588.2 million 565.0 million 2.37 billion
The Star 2008-05-16

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Appendix E: Distribution of PLKNs Camps

Made by the Authors

Appendix F: Pictures of Activities in PLKN

Tug of war that was participated by all racial and ethnic groups promotes national integration and unity. Picture taken from PLKN official website (refer to References).

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Another picture shared by post-PLKN participants on the internet. Such kind of inactive talks are often given in the program as mentioned in the paper.

Another picture shared by post-PLKN participants on the internet. Such activities are included in the community service module.

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Another picture shared by post-PLKN participants on the internet. Although the authors stated that practical community service activities are rare, but they are still there, and they differ from camps to camps.

Another picture shared by post-PLKN participants on the internet. The indoor activities shown in the picture is a kind of character building activities.

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Another picture shared by post-PLKN participants on the internet. Participants have chances in accessing firearms M16.

Another picture shared by post-PLKN participants on the internet. Physical activities include marching, which all participants are supposed to participate, unless with special illness.

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Another picture shared by post-PLKN participants on the internet. National integration happens automatically as participants of different backgrounds get to know each others religions, traditions etc.

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Pictures shared by post-PLKN participants on the internet showing more physical activities that require participants from different backgrounds to work together in order to achieve their common goals.

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Another picture shared by post-PLKN participants on the internet. High rope is another special activity of the program that gives the participants precious experiences.

Another picture shared by post-PLKN participants on the internet. Religious activities of all religions are not neglected by the program.

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References Official Website of PLKN - http://www.khidmatnegara.gov.my/ Wikipedia.org - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_National_Service

A poll about the advantages and disadvantages of PLKN hosted on a forum - http://english1.cari.com.my/viewthread.php?tid=10490 A blog post by a post-PLKN participant - http://zz56378949.pixnet.net/blog/post/5396626 A blog post by another post-PLKN participant - http://malayteenmind.blogspot.com/2007/02/good-and-bad-of-plkn-programme.html A PLKN forum hosted by JLKN - http://khidmat-negara.net/forum-plkn/index.php?topic=5700.0

The Star News Paper 122008/05/18 2011/02/06

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