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PETALING JAYA: An NGO representing retired military officers says the government’s aim in wanting to revive the National Service program (PLKN) might be good on paper, but better and cheaper alternatives should be seriously considered, with the Ministry of Education at the head.
The president of the National Association of Patriots (Patriot), Mohamed Arshad Raji, said that while studies could show that PLKN succeeded in achieving a score of around 80% in instilling patriotism, behavior among some youth and adults in society proves otherwise.
He acknowledged that the goals and design of the training program are well crafted and relevant to our multi-racial and multi-religious society.
“However, we believe that training should start at the primary school level and continue to the tertiary level.
“The Japanese and Korean educational models, which foster patriotism and other good values from an early age, are examples that we can emulate,” Raji said in a statement today.
He called for the education ministry to take responsibility for raising children from an early age.
“The Ministry of Education must have experts in motivational training capable of developing training modules that meet similar objectives to PLKN.
“They can focus on developing extracurricular activities that can produce results similar to PLKN, and at a much lower cost,” he said.
Arshad pointed to activities such as exploration (Brownies, Boy Scouts and Girl Guides), outdoor motivational camps, military and police school cadets, Red Crescent, San Juan Ambulance and school choirs as good examples to train children from a early age.
The national service program began in 2004 under then-Defense Minister Najib Razak and was dissolved in 2018 by the former Pakatan Harapan government after Putrajaya took office. A total of 885,956 youth had participated in the training.
Raji said that some issues also need to be resolved if the show resumes as is.
“There was a lot of criticism of the training program, including that the main objective of instilling patriotism, fostering understanding, harmony, unity and a caring Malaysian society had failed.
“There were also accusations that the PLKN was going to enrich the cronies, with almost half of the total cost spent on renting the training grounds.
“PLKN cannot and must not continue until these criticisms are addressed,” he said, citing the RM8.43 billion spent over the 14-year period, with nearly half said to have been for rent.
