The deputy prime minister said that he treated "... all problems related to the National Service programme as challenges rather than criticisms in our effort to prepare our youth for the future."

All the same, I wonder if the girl who was alleged raped by a trainer would be able to take this as a challenge. If this alleged rape did actually take place, do we then tell this poor girl that this was some form of training that would help her prepare for her future?

I wonder if those who have been bullied in the camps by others, and those who have been coerced into drugs and other such unsavory activities (again, all alleged) would be able to look at them as challenges that will help prepare them for the future.

If this is the form of preparation that we are giving them, I would rather that such preparation be left in the hands of us parents. The country was doing quite well, thank you very much, before the implementation of the NS.

My feeling is that the real reason of the NS was to get the youth to think favourably of the ruling government. Well, they would probably think more favourably of the government if the whole NS scheme was now scrapped.

The recent elections results also proves that the unpopularity the BN faced in the past was due to one man and that one man has since left the scene. So releasing our kids back to us would probably be something that would be viewed favourably by our youth, too.

Sitting in some jungle, waiting to be bored out of their minds by some totally uninspiring trainers while feeding mosquitoes with one's own blood is not exactly productive work. But I suppose that we should take all these as challenges.

The only trouble is when it affects someone else, it's a challenge. But when it affects you, or your child, it is no longer a challenge, it is a nightmare. The government will have a lot to explain and account for if the alleged rape really did happen.