Elizabeth Wong's comments deserve further public debate on the issue of the prosecution and judgement made against Ahmad Hafizal Ahmad Fauzie who was found guilty of a 'no show' for the compulsory national service programme.

Harizal's case is certainly a wake-up call for the prosecution as well as to all concerned citizens, although the attorney-general has done full justice in clarifying the issue from the legal point of view.

Having said that, as a parent and a concerned citizen I am saddened to have seen the visuals of television news reports which showed Harizal in handcuffs. The fact that he needed to be handcuffed was very unfortunate as well as disturbing to most of us as fellow human beings.

How did Harizal's mother, siblings and relatives feel to have seen their loved one handcuffed with so much publicity in the media?

However, apart from the 'sensational' reporting of the case, the sad and hurt face of Harizal as seen on TV was probably more disturbing to our children and teenagers who are part of our rapidly growing society.

They will remember this unfortunate treatment of the law on Harizal for the rest of their lives. This is certainly not a case of deterring them from dodging the national service but on the contrary, one of having a very negative social impact on the younger populace.

The national service training programme has received very good response and support from the youth as well as parents despite some unfortunate incidents that happened during the course of managing the programme.

There are certainly enough justifications to further improve the management of the programme as well as an urgent need to revise the laws concerning NS dodgers to take into account our social environment, particularly the needs of rural society families.

I would like to suggest that an effective database management of all students eligible for the NS be maintained and the list of dodgers be examined and reviewed by a ministerial committee before police action is taken against them.

The investigations and findings of this committee should form the basis of legal action against the shirkers and certain laws, therefore, need to be reviewed.

In the name of humanity, I also urge the authorities concerned to review the law which require all those arrested to be handcuffed with no discretion for the type of crime, the person's age or other extenuating circumstances.

This approach of reviewing our legislation is in line with the aspirations of our Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who has expressed his personal concern on the matter of changing our laws to suit modern society as part of the 10 principles of Islam Hadhari (Civilisational Islam).