Last week, Dato' Seri Utama Haji Mohamad Hassan announced additional details on the upcoming National Service programme, also known as Program Latihan Khidmat Negara (PLKN). The programme will involve Malaysian youths aged 16 to 35 in 2024, with the training conducted at Territorial Army Regiment camps nationwide.
The age grouping of 16 to 35 years old had earlier caused concern amongst Malaysians as it had implied that the programme would involve a mixed age group. However, the Ministry of Defence has since clarified that the programme selection would still follow the year of birth, with draftees appealing for postponement up to the age of 35.
The upcoming NS will be Malaysia's third time it has instituted an NS programme. The first time that Malaysia instituted the programme was between the years 1963 and 1965, post-formation of Malaysia due to the looming threats from Indonesia and the Philippines. A Malaysian Army officer who survived World War 2, Major (Retired) Ismail b Babu, gave detailed accounts of his experience training the draftees in the Malaysian Army recruit training centre at Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan in his book "Kisah Seorang Perajurit". The government discontinued the programme after the threat dissipated with the end of the Konfrontasi with Indonesia.
The second PLKN came about circa 2003 / 2004. Unlike the first iteration of the PLKN, this PLKN only nominally involved the military and coed training session, allowing male and female trainees to train together. At some point, some sections of society derided the PLKN as a summer camp. Despite not being a complete military training programme, the programme still saw several trainees dying. The coed nature also came under attack as allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced.
The announcement of the new PLKN programme was not well-received. The public is not apprised clearly on the implementation plan. The earlier example on the age group is a clear example.
One Malaysian mother who wished to remain anonymous queried the wording used in the announcement. She pointed out that the Minister mentioned the programme is for Malaysian youths after completing SPM, potentially leaving a loophole for Malaysian parents to help their children avoid the PLKN by sending them to private and international schools that do not follow the Malaysian syllabus.
Then, there is also the issue of funding. With the Anwar administration unlikely to be willing to increase funding for defence, the programme is likely to be self-funded with the current budget allocation for the defence sector. The Malaysian defence sector budget currently is amongst the lowest in the world, around 0.9% to 1.4% against the Gross Domestic Production (GDP) during the last decade; this has seriously curtailed the ability of the Malaysian Armed Forces to maintain readiness. With such an extensive programme, this would have severe implications for the state of military readiness.
The timing of the deactivation of Pengkalan Laut Tun Sharifah Rodziah in the Eastern Sabah Security Zone, citing high operational costs and the start of the PLKN programme, might not be a coincidence.
For the record, two of Malaysia's neighbours, Singapore and Thailand, have ongoing military national service programmes. Singapore's NS men undergo two years of active duty before being placed into reservist function units. The Singaporean Armed Forces can activate them to active duty up to 40 to 50, depending on expertise and specialisation.
Danny Liew is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
