Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and members of the National Service (NS) Training Council have been urged to go on the ground to find out the root causes of a recent spate of disciplinary cases involving participants.

" Turun padang ....come out of your air-conditioned offices to meet with the trainees and the parents," DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang said in a statement today.

He also called for parliamentarians and state assemblypersons to be granted free access to the training camps.

"(The training camps) should not be run like criminal or concentration camps that bar MPs and state assemblypersons," he said.

Lim, the Ipoh Timur MP, was barred from visiting a training camp in Tronoh, Perak yesterday where an alleged assault case took place recently. Batu Gajah MP Fong Po Kuan accompanied him.

Fong had sent a letter informing the camp authorities of the intended visit a day earlier.

Letter to Najib

"(Stopping) me and my team from visiting the camp is a disgrace, shame and blot on the programme", Lim said.

He also claimed that the camp authorities responded to his visit "as if Osama bin Laden was leading al-Qaeda terrorists to destroy the camp".

"When we arrived (outside the camp), we found that public vehicles were freely entering and leaving without any inhibition. But when we tried to enter, we were blocked and the gates quickly locked," he said.

"The security reaction to our presence was most extraordinary, as if the camp was facing (an) imminent devastating attack by deadly enemy forces."

Lim said a letter has been sent to Najib ( photo ) requesting an urgent meeting to address the defects in the programme to date, including incidents of fights, sexual harassment and indiscipline.

"I am in fact finding more and more reasons why the entire national service training should be suspended unless Najib and the council can ensure a 'zero-defect' programme," he said.

The five-member DAP committee, headed by Fong, to deal with complaints pertaining to the national service will also ask for a meeting with the council - which is scheduled to hold a meeting on Friday.