The Defense Ministry unveiled more details on the national service scheme but has not decided whether there would be weapons training for the participants during the three months.

Assistant Chief Secretary of the National Service Committee Siti Azizah Abod said participants would undergo a month-long stint at an outdoor camp before moving on to two months of classroom activity in varsity campuses nationwide.

"There will be one month of physical training at the camps involving 600 to 700 students per camp. The physical training would be organised like an Outward Bound course," she said at a forum in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

"Then, the participants will spend two months at campuses in public and private institutes of higher learning. They will be taught civic consciousness, leadership qualities and will also do community service with hospitals, homes for the elderly and non-government organisations," she added.

On physical training, Siti said among the key concerns of parents was whether their children would be required to handle weapons.

"If we have weapons training, it would also add to the excitement of the course. However, we have to balance this with the concern of the parents," she added.

Last month, Defence Minister Najib Tun Razak announced that the scheme - to be implemented next year - would include basic military training for the participants.

However, few details were given as to the exact component of this particular module, except that it would resemble activities by uniformed groups, such as drills, and outdoors survival skills.

Positive feedback

Meanwhile, Siti said the ministry has received positive feedback from parents. "We are getting letters from parents telling us to please put their children on the course."

Based on a survey carried out by the ministry on 600 students, Siti said 81 percent of the respondents said they supported the scheme while 72 percent felt it should be made compulsory for all teenagers.

On the participation rate, she said the ministry had to limit the course to roughly only 20 percent of those eligible because of cost and infrastructure constraints. So far, the ministry announced it would select 100,000 out of 481,000 Malaysians born in 1986 as first time participants.

"The selection would be reflective of the racial, gender and locational demographics of the students," she said.

According to statistics obtained by the ministry, this meant that those selected would comprise 53% Malays, 26% Chinese, 7.6% Indians and 13.4% other bumiputera and racial groups.

The balloting would take into account the gender demographics of 50.5% males and 49.5% females, as well as the residential location of the individuals to ensure representation from all states and districts.

Siti said the ministry is also planning for trainers to reflect these demographic statistics.

"We may recruit veteran police and military personnel for the physical training. The current thinking is for us to have a mixture of outsourced recruitment and direct recruitment by the ministry," she said, adding that interested members of the civil society could also apply for these positions.

Implementation problems

At the discussion later, several panelists questioned whether the government should consider postponing the implementation until finer details of the scheme was decided upon.

Executive Director of Yayasan Strategik Sosial Dr Denison Jayasooria expressed concern of problems that may arise on the implementation of the scheme if sufficient time was not given for planning stages.

"It is not uncommon for there to be abuses in camps and other problems. The nightmare of such plans are always in the delivery. We have to consider how to ensure standards, and quality but there is very little time now," he said.

Clinical psychologist Dr Teoh Hsien Jin questioned various issues not dealt with presently by the scheme's drafters.

"If we are going to have weapons training, then there has to be a lot of discipline and accountability. It is a very serious matter if items such as bullets go missing. Are there going to be penalties for this?

"There are also other problems. We are talking about putting 600 17-year-olds in camps in the jungle for a month. There are various health issues to be considered especially when we have problems of cholera epidemic and also a dengue epidemic in the Klang Valley. Sanitary and hygiene issues are crucial as well," he said.

Three panelists representing political parties said they agreed in principle that there was a need for initiatives to foster unity among the youth but disagreed as to the manner with which the scheme was being implemented.

Opportunity to interact

Umno Youth Exco member Nur Jazlan Mohamed said the scheme has to be implemented in order to ensure that youths coming from different ethnic groups and backgrounds are given the opportunity to interact.

"Malay youths are worried about whether things are going to change for them. The non-Malays are now less patient than their parents (about special rights issues) because they feel they are citizens of this country as well. These (different) needs have manifested in some cases in extremism. So we have to address this," he said.

Gerakan Youth secretary-general Hoo Saw Ho stressed that the ministry must be transparent in the selection of participants and allow no exemptions based on an individual's family background or social status.

"The government must also be accountable with regards to the expenditure. This cannot be criticised later as being a white elephant programme which is burdensome to the people," he said.

DAP Youth national secretary Anthony Loke reiterated his party's stand that the three month course will not achieve its target objectives if the entire education system was not revamped to address negative attitudes of students adopted since childhood.

Loke pointed out that several other 'national unity' initiatives have failed, among others, the work of the Ministry of National Unity and Social Development.

"The ministry has been in existence for years. What has it been doing all this time? The government also implemented the Rakan Muda project some 10 years ago. After spending millions of ringgit in advertising, how many members had it recruited?," he questioned.