I write in reference to the article in The Star titled ' Taking a peek at NS camp life ' (Jan 5). Study the following quote from the aforementiond article:

"There will be six Malays, three Chinese and one Indian in each tent, representing the country's racial composition".

So we're going to segregate them even before they get there via the bedding arrangements? I find it ridiculous that here we all are harping on about this programme bringing about a 'Bangsa Malaysia' when the people in charge are actually arranging the tents according to some form of quota. It does not take a fool to see that eventually the tent is going to become segregated.

The whole national service idea has been fundamentally flawed from the very beginning, starting with the very iffy purpose of wanting to "instill patriotism and build a Bangsa Malaysia". I'll tell you the truth about what you're going to have. You're going to have a section of the youth who are going to hate you for putting them through this. The idea of random selection via the computer means that already you victimise one section whilst the others get off. If you were so serious about this, it should have been made compulsory for everyone!

But no... it's not bad enough that Malaysians only get to university about two years later then most, and now to top it off, a whole bunch of young people who had so many things planned out have to watch their friends go off to college and enjoy themselves whilst they rot in some god-forsaken part of the country doing something that they do not want to do.

You cannot 'make' someone to be patriotic and do community service. These cannot be 'forced' upon a person... they have to want to do it themselves. Did anyone listen to the youth who were complaining even before the idea was put into place? Maybe if you had, you would have found that most of them think it is a damned waste of time.

Anyone remember something called 'Rakan Muda'? NS is probably going to end up like that.