The national service programme to be implemented beginning February 2004 is nothing more than political hype to gain extra mileage in garnering votes for the impending general election.

I can assure you that the end will not justify its means, as repercussions will result from those families whose teenagers were 'unluckily' and randomly selected with a touch of a button.

Imagine a teenager who has just finished his/her SPM exam and wishes to work part-time to help ease the financial burden on the family. Unfortunately, he/she gets selected to go for the three-month stint.

How is he/she going to help the family then? Will the government be paying the family the equalivalent amount of wages that he/she will get from the part-time job? Obviously not. How do you think the teenager concerned will feel? More patriotic to the country? Certainly not.

Imagine mixing a group of teenagers from both sexes and having them go through the necessary army/commando type of training. Have all aspects of safety, morality, emotional stress, etc, been considered?

If my daughter is selected, how can the government ensure her safety? If she is taking a bath or needs to answer nature's call, will she have this fear of been 'watched' or peeped at by a male participant, trainer or anybody else?

There have been cases of women being peeped at when they use public toilets along the North-South Highway. How does the government plan to ensure that this will not happen to our daughters in training camp?

How can a three-month stint make our teenagers become more patriotic when the 11-year education system has failed to do so? Whatever happened to projects like Rakan Muda, which is supposed to instil racial harmony and to overcome the problems of lepak and drug addiction?

Can the government 're-engineer' the Rakan Muda project, which is under the patronage of the Youth and Sports Ministry instead of coming up with yet another project under the patronage of the Defence Ministry?

Do we really need mammoth projects costing RM500 million a year when we could spend a fraction of it on revamping and re-engineering existing projects, or better yet, change the education policy?

In the end, it is the taxpayers' money that will be used. And it will be my money that will not be rightfully and justifiably spent.