PARLIAMENT Most of the deaths that occurred at National Service (NS) training camps were due to “undetectable” diseases, Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri said today.

“There have been only 20 deaths in NS programmes since its inception in 2004, not 22 as claimed,” he told the Dewan Rakyat during Question Time in response to a question from Johari Abdul (PKR-Sungai Petani)

“And most of these deaths were due to their own health problems, such as leukaemia and others, which couldn’t be detected,” he added.

Abdul Rahim also defended the cost involved in implementing the programme, saying that National Service was good for “national integration”.

He said that many Malaysian students join vernacular schools, resulting in little integration with other students from other races.

NONE“But in the National Service, it serves as an opportunity for the students to integrate with each other. It's good for national integration,” Abdul Rahim (right) said.

He said that the more benefits of the NS programme will be “visible over time”.

He earlier said that the government has spent an average of RM600 million to RM650 million a year on the programme for the past nine years.

So far, the programme has trained over 750,000 trainees, Abdul Rahim said.

He also said that a survey conducted in 2009 showed that about 80 percent of respondents, all former NS trainees, are happy with the benefits of the NS programme.

“The study was conducted by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and they surveyed more than 61,000 former NS trainees. Over 80 percent of them are happy with the programme,” he said.