The police should concentrate on protecting the lives and property of the public instead of being burdened with arresting national service shirkers, DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang said today.

"The entire supplementary NS programme should be suspended indefinitely as the police should not be burdened with a manhunt and the prosecution of some 7,600 're-dodgers'. The top police priority must be to make the streets, public places and the privacy of homes safe and free from criminals," the opposition leader said in a statement today.

Recently, the authorities stepped up action against national service dodgers by publishing the names of 8,599 trainees who did not answer the initial call up for NS and threatened to arrest them. The initial batch of trainees began their service in February this year.

Rescinding the threat later, the authorities offered a 'second chance' and another programme for the dodgers but even so, less than 2,000 of the 8,599 shirkers signed up when the deadline ended yesterday.

Under the National Service Act, shirkers face a RM3,000 fine or the a six-month jail sentence, which the Cabinet Committee on the National Service is mulling.

Two fundamental freedoms

"At a time when the police have not been able to show results in restoring to Malaysians their two fundamental freedoms - freedom from crime and the fear of crime - the burdening of the police with the new task is only calculated to further undermine pubic confidence in the police force," Lim said.

The press have been highlighting a rise in the number of crimes committed in the city and around the country. Public outcry reached an apex when two people died after falling victims to snatch thieves.

Lim then called for the government to rethink the feasibility of the NS programme and questioned its RM500 million funding which could have been used to find better ways to instil discipline, national unity and patriotism among youths.

At the onset, the NS programme faced numerous problems which included logistics shortcomings and trainee indiscipline.

Claims for damages

On this issue, Utusan Malaysia today reported that Universiti Malaya, one of the NS training camps, has asked the higher education ministry to foot the bill for RM1 million worth of damage caused by NS trainees in the university.

According to UM Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr A Hamid A Hadi, NS trainees vandalised had university property when some of their demands were not met.

Contacted by malaysiakini today, officials from the higher education ministry said they have not received anything from UM yet regarding the matter.

"We only read the news reports today. We have not received anything yet but I have informed the deputy minister of this," said an aide to Deputy Higher Education Minister Fu Ah Kiow.

UM is not the only training centre to fall victim to errant trainees as other campuses have also been affected. It is learnt that damages at other centres were worth more than RM1 million.