Two news reports today do not inspire confidence that the trouble-prone national service (NS) training programme has learnt from all its weaknesses, defects, blunders, mishaps and disasters, including 12 trainee deaths in the past three years, viz:

• The failure to notify the second batch of 35,046 trainees two months before they are to report for training on March 18, as announced in November last year. Instead, notification was only issued three weeks before March 18. (Sin Chew Daily)
• The Star report “NS camp chief gets the boot” on the sacking with immediate effect of Camp commandant Zulkarnain Abdullah after he criticized the management of the three-star Kisana Beach Resort National Service (NS) camp in Kelantan, which had been described as “camp hell” by the first batch of trainees there. The most recent case of national service trainee death, Prema Elenchelian, 18, from Cheras Perdana, Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 27 is from the camp. Zulkarnain alleged that he was sacked for protecting the health, safety and welfare of the 400 trainees and criticizing the shabby conditions of the resort’s management company, Rimbun Kisana Development Sdn. Bhd.

The instant sacking of “whistleblower” camp commandant Zulkarnain does not inspire confidence that the National Service Training Department is prepared to give top priority to the interests and welfare of the national service trainees as compared to the profiteering camp and resort managements.

Zulkarnain, who received his dismissal letter from the NS Department on Thursday evening and was barred from attending the NS closing ceremony marking the end of the first NS programme this year, is clearly being punished for the New Straits Times report of the same day, “Trainees say it’s hell but company begs to differ”.

The report carried the trainees’ litany of complaints, which “run from boring exercises, run-down dormitories and grubby food to camp managers who just do not care”, with horror stories such as:

• squalid dormitories which had faulty electrical appliances or no regular supply of running water;
• “There are six fans in the dorms, but only two work. The faucets let out air and mosquitoes when you open them and the only water to bathe in is groundwater. When we take our bath with the groundwater, which is infested with mosquito larvae, we will come down with rashes.”
• Food served “atrocious and laced with insects and maggots”;
• Food always “arrives late, especially now that the dining hall has been shut down, and we are given nasi bungkus (packed rice).” The camp’s dining hall was sealed by Pasir Putih district council authorities on Feb 26 after inspectors found that it did not adhere to guidelines.

Zulkarnain said he had repeatedly raised these problems with the camp management, which had ignored the pleas.

Rimbun Kisana Holdings chairman Tengku Azran Badrul Tengku Mohd Adnan denied the claims, describing them as “personal and ill-intentioned”, asking if the camp was sub-standard, how it could get a three-star rating from the National Service Training Department.

This is a question Malaysians would want answer. Zulkarnain should be commended for speaking out against the deplorable conditions detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of the trainees.

But this is another case of the whistleblower being punished for exposing weaknesses and defects of national service training camps, which will completely undermine public confidence that the National Service Training Department is serious about a full revamp of the national service training programme after the recent spate of mishaps and disasters, including:

• NS transport fiasco in January;
• Two NS trainees deaths for the first batch of NS trainees – Ili Ameera, 17, from Seremban and Prema Elenchelian;
• Asilalatin Abdul Basir, 17, formerly of SMK Ibrahim I in Pasir Mas, suffering paralysis and loss of the use of her legs and unable to feel anything from the waist down after undergoing a routine physical exercise at Camp Teluk Rubiah in Sitiawan, Perak, last month.

Recently, public demands have escalated for the suspension of the national service training programme until there is a full review and revamp to overcome its weaknesses and defects, and even outright calls for its cancellation and for the programme to be introduced during the schooling period.

The latest developments, particularly the arbitrary sacking of whistleblower Zulkarnain, will reinforce the public demand for the immediate suspension of the national service programme as it demonstrates the incapability of the National Service Training Department to give top priority to the life, health, safety and welfare of the trainees above all other considerations.