What do Haziq Jaafar, T Saravanan, Illiameera Azlan, Mohamad Rafi Ameer, Too Hui Moon and Abdul Malik Ishak - all Malaysians with a bright future - share in common?

Tragic, that they are among the 18 young souls who perished in various national service camps since the programme was launched in December 2003.

mahathir cyberjaya lecture 220409 press conference Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when prime minister, was adamant that this programme be carried out to foster "national unity and mutual understanding" among young Malaysians, and all the caution by the general public, civil society and experts against the hasty implementation merely fell on deaf ears.

We are now reaping the bitter fruit of an ill-conceived, half-baked and largely propagandistic project imposed by the Barisan Nasional government.

The sharp-tongued former prime minister might have meant well, but someone should have reminded him that all roads to hell are paved with good intentions. As it turned out, Mahathir's brainchild has only managed to claim more victims than produce success.

Nearly six years on, inter-ethnic relations cannot have been worse. And it is better for Mahathir to hold his tongue and speak positively to encourage Malaysians of all races, instead of venting his anger, resentment and sarcasm at every opportunity that does nothing but undermine communal trust.

And it is not only deaths that scare me, but a series of untoward incidents too. Brawls (often racial in nature) and thefts are common, while the unhygienic conditions continue to pose health risks. More tellingly, allegations of sexual harassment and even rape, abound.

Just yesterday, the Terengganu High Court acquitted a former NS training programme coach of rape because "no reasonable excuse was given by the complainant on why she had to take almost two months or 44 days to lodge a police report if she was raped as claimed". I wonder if the judge has heard of rape trauma syndrome .

In any other democratic country, a controversial - scandalous even - programme such as the Malaysian NS would have been axed, but it is still alive and kicking. To rub salt into the wound, Najib Abdul Razak as defence minister argued the number of deaths during NS was " a small percentage " compared to the 339,186 trainees who had "benefited" from the programme by May 2008.

Having taken over the premiership last March, Najib has come up with even more bizarre and impractical ideas with a view to forging "national unity" in line with his 1Malaysia concept, such as a "multi-racial hostel" in the Klang Valley for children who face difficulties at home. It only prompted many a cynic to opine that Malaysians could only be united in B & B (bed & breakfast).

Lip service and rhetoric

National unity will only be a reality when the nation is administered with fairness, transparency, accountability, competency and distributive justice (regardless of race, creed and religion), not lip service and rhetoric.

NONE And all the hollow sloganeering has only produced more deaths, the latest being N Dina Deve, from Mambang Diawan, Perak. The poor 11 year-old had joined a 1Malaysia camp in Kuala Dipang but met her untimely death when a suspension bridge collapsed on Monday night. Two other girls are still missing while the hopes of finding them alive are fading fast.

How would a three-week old "new" bridge suddenly break loose? The man-made accident has again put our levels of technology and competency under severe scrutiny and there is a lot to answer for.

After the series of safety incidents - from the leaking roof of the parliament building to the collapse of the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Gong Badak, Malaysia is now infamous for the so-called tofu-dreg project , just like China.

To his credit, the prime minister has recruited some capable figures - such as Idris Jala - to ensure that his government is run based on Key Performance Indicators.

To save more lives, both Idris and his colleagues must now sit together and re-examine vigorously the NS programme, while all the 1Malaysia-related activities that involve the young should be suspended pending investigation.

Most importantly, they must do so without fear and favour, failing which they will only prove themselves to be yet another team of Yes-Men in perpetual servitude to their political master.

National unity is good, but it cannot be achieved at all costs - and certainly not when many may have to die young tragically and unnecessarily just to satisfy the egoistic ideals of ambitious politicians, whoever they are.