KUALA LUMPUR: The story below from Bernama is self-explainatory. What boggles the mind is how and why such ideas came from anyway?
Especially when the NS is bleeding some RM500 million a year from the already meagre defence budget.
I believe it is better for us to build swimming pools at schools or enclosures along rivers to serve as pools for schools located next to rivers, lakes or seas instead of building these facilities at “specialised” location which will be empty for most of the year.
Swimming pool proposed as standard feature in all 78 NS camps
Bernama
Thursday, August 26th, 2010 17:51:00
SIBU: The National Service Training Department will suggest to the Defence Ministry and National Service Training Council for swimming pool to be made a standard feature at all the 78 camps nationwide.
Its director-general Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang Kechik said this could be a long-term measure to prevent trainees from contracting waterborne diseases like leptospirosis.
“When the situation warrants it, water-based activities can be held in the swimming pool.
“In addition, it can be used to teach trainees to swim, how to rescue drowning persons and for games like water polo,” he told reporters during a visit to the Junaco Park NS camp at Km26, Sibu-Bintulu Road, here, today.
—Malaysian Defence
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Suggest the decision-makers in Mindef think carefully of the implications of the proposal.
Only one or two military camps these days have swimming pool.Even Mindef has already closed its swimming pool years ago due to high maintenance cost.
Military people will ask why build swimming pools for the National Service Centres when the miltary themselves are not given the facility? Why create the possibility of discontentment among the military by going ahead with the proposal? How is the military leadership going to explain to his people that the Government is funding the swimming pool project for the NS when so many basic essential requirements for the Army have not been resolved yet?
Dato Hadi should stick to the initial objective of the NS which is to improve race relation between youths of our community.We do not need swimming pools for that purpose, there are other training methods that can be used to achieve the objective
The Director General should have his head checked!! It’s bad enough we have politicans from the government and opposition with stupid ideas. Now we have civil servants presenting un-workable/unrealistic proposals. If invaded, we can entice the enemy to the swimming pools, then drown them. Cheaper than having an armed forces.
What will they do next? …hehehehhe brother! Selamat berpuasa but the truth is, it is a big waste of money but you know who will benefit? Aha… don’t tell me you don’t know….Terawih la coz just another 15 days before we celebrate eid…..silap hari bulan you will strike the night of the power….
Money waste again. The same fund allocate for this can be used to fund the emerging need of the armed forces now like upgrading the NGPV’s weapon suite.
Although the idea is good and can be accepted for the sake of the trainees, but for a military conscription, this is just too ‘luxury’. The money can be used for other more important and emerging abandoned projects.
One would also have to raise the question whether the RM500 million a year spent on this program really worth it……to the tax payers i mean
Yes, Kamal I agree with you the RM500 million a year for the NS could be put for better use for our commuities’ benefit, such as more funds for education, health, libraries, communities activities etc.
Talking about our community, it is a shame that our community leaders have not done more to improve race relationship among our youth. They should come forward to organize activities for primary and secondary students in their community.
Don’t wait for the politicians to start community projects for our youths. Harness the experts that are already there within the community. Encourage these experts to volunteer their service to form community social clubs such Football Club, Chess Club, Book Club, Outdoor Adventure Clubs etc for our youth where they can intermingle and socialize. The spirit of volunteerism by seniors at each kampong/village/ housing estate is needed to improve relationship among the young.
The government on their part should not interfere with such community projects but provide funds when and where needed. I think this approach is better than the NS scheme. It should be community-initiated project rather than government-guided in order to have it internally embedded in our Malaysian culture.
Agreed with loreng about the improving the race relationship among the youth matter. Correct me if I am wrong, but we still need the National Service as a standard military conscription to ensure our survivability in the event of war although only a portion of eligible youth are involved.
Marhalim: Racial intergration should be done during school days, one cannot expect miracles from a three month programme. Yes, personally I believed in a full military conscription even just to ensure that the powers that make sure the military got the right equipment so their sons and daughter will not suffer but I dont think we have the money to do so so much better solution is for us to train the best and the brightest to do National Service not just military but civil defence as well and it must a long term programme not like the current NS
Yes we should do it like what the Korean did. Make it 2 years and more people will protest. Now, military conscription for 3 months also people give many excuses to delay and avoid from the conscription, I have no idea what if we make it longer than 3 months. Perhaps, the camp will shutdown forever.
The current NS IMHO is an llocation not well spent. Only 10% i believe of the curriculum involve any military training, i think the school kadet program and reserve officer in uni program gave more military training than the NS. So the current NS i believe could not be equate as a defense back up plan. Wheter it is an effective tool for race relation…hmmmm…the jury is still out there.
As long ago we did argue about the allocation for NS in this forum, and i now tend to agree with one forumer that the RM500 million NS allocation could be better spent to provide regular troops with better boots, body armour, better service rifle, more NGV, thermal imager and more training allocation than anything else
I don’t see conscription as a viable option on the scale practiced down south or like South Korea. MINDEF should probably improve our precedent by streamlining PALAPES, NS and/or TA into a unified reserve system rather than blithely doing what it is currently being told to do by clueless political appointees and civilian directors. The reorganisation of the TA is a good example of utilising what we have to meet current challenges, so it probably proves there are quality operational and organisational work being done by MINDEF that should probably be brought over to the current issue.
Furthermore, if the Jugoslavians are a benchmark of race relations, their conscription wasn\’t worth a damn as the political atmosphere quickly turned ethnically polarised. NS won\’t solve race relations if our politicians has no right mind to be serious in ethical ethnic relations.
There is no political will to make ‘khidmat negara’ into a full fleged NS. Neither is there public support. To make it into a proper NS will also require more funding, funding that can be better used for the MAF.
On a side note, i have a question that I’m curious about, on a totally separate subject. The Condor and Sibmas fleet is operated by 4 Cavalry Regiments that are part of the Royal Armoured Corps. The Scorpions and Stormers, including the Armoured Squaron of 10th Para are also under the Royal Armoured Corps. Who owns the Adnans and MIFVs that are operated by 4th Mechanised Brigade? Are they still part of the Royal Armoured Corps or part of the Malay Regiment and Ranger Regiment?
They belong to the Infantry
So that means 11th Amoured Regiment will only have Pt91s and Scorpionss and no tracked IFV?