The nation joins the parents of the more than a dozen NS youths who died while under the care and responsibility of all those who are paid or benefitting and in-charge of this much doubted programme.

Now do we blame, find an excuse or should one take responsibility?

The deputy prime minister has lambasted - in the wake of public concern and outcry - with a statement to that effect that this NS programme cannot be aborted as there is much to lose.

While as a minister privy to many of the official secrets, he may have his grounds to take a seemingly hardline stand but one reels flabbergasted for the obvious lack of empathy and sympathy.

What is the equation? Saving the lives of our young and promising future or the loss of material, financial and economic considerations?

And just in case anyone out there is tempted to holler back with that infamous standard Malaysian answer, 'It is God's will', the medical profession should act assertively and make known a learned public opinion without fear or favour over each and every child we lost through this National Service programme.

Please Mr Prime Minister, the nation looks towards you for an answer. And if such is not forthcoming in a timely and affirmative manner, the consequences arising from the subsequent public perception will only weigh-in even deeper. And after-thought facts and accrued statistics will surely only add to nought.

The very fundamentals of safety dictate that an accident only occurs when two factors combine, namely an unsafe act and an unsafe condition.

If we are to allow common sense to prevail, then the deaths of our helpless, innocent young within the camps after all these years can only be explained by virtue of someone's incapability, insensitivity, incompetence - short of cold, inhuman brutality.

Now who will take the rap? Please do not jump in with a politically-motivated finger pointing at the lost souls.