KUALA LUMPUR: Putrajaya’s decision to defer the National Service Training Programme (PLKN) for a year as part of its measures to cut federal spending has left parents questioning whether the programme should be cancelled for good.

Mak Chee Kin, who chairs the Malacca Action Group for Parents in Education, or Magpie, said that for years the government has defended the need for such a programme to foster integration. Yet, when faced with financial difficulty, the programme is the first to be put on hold.

“If the government is very sure the programme is good and promotes integration, they should stick to it, no matter what the country goes through,” said Mak.

“If they now think it’s a waste of money, then we shouldn’t have done it in the first place.”

Mak said he personally supports the programme, as he has heard glowing testimonies from participants who said they learned many lessons not taught in school.

“For the sake of the nation’s betterment, they should have looked at other things to cut down.

“Their decision contradicts a lot of what they said all this time, that national service is really important for the nation.”

PLKN is held three times a year for Form Five leavers, with some 74,000 to 80,000 18-year-olds placed in camps around the country to undergo physical training and programmes aimed at fostering national unity.

Parent Action Group for Education (Page) chair Datin Noor Azimah said now that the government had taken the first step of freezing it, the relevance of the programme should be reviewed.

“There was always a lot of criticism about the programme. But they have been consistently reviewing and updating it. So if they review and find it is better to cancel it, then why not? I don’t think it [would be] a great loss.

“The reason for PLKN was to integrate the trainees, but I think it’s a bit too late to do that at 18. They should be learning to integrate while they are young,” she told The Malaysian Insider.

Noor Azimah said she agreed with Putrajaya’s decision to defer the PLKN for a year, as she did not see how it could benefit the nation.

Association of Parents and Individuals Towards Revising the Education System (Aspires) founder Shamsuddin Hamid said that if PLKN is to continue, it should be more transparent.

“One worry is that it is some form of indoctrination. At least make it transparent. Let people know the contents of the training, what the trainers are teaching.

“The youth should be inculcated with positive values throughout the programme. But if they are just force fed the values, it is worthless,” he said.

Putrajaya announced on Tuesday that it would defer the programme this year as part of its measures to weather plunging crude oil prices.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said postponing PLKN would save the government RM400 million.

Following this, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the move would give his ministry and the defence ministry a chance to conduct a review of the programme to improve it. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 22, 2015.