Back... at last!

Yeah, and I am the only one waiting with abated breath...

Anyway, during my absence, I got to show my newborn child how life looks like outside mummy's womb and I think we get along really well. Which is more than can be said about our so-called newborn government so far.

Let's look the the skid marks on the road to wherever Pak Lah and bandwagon are heading, starting with National Service - The publishing of names of young people who have evaded the NS. The ACA is nowhere near disclosing the names of people under active investigation for corruption even though some are public leaders who deserve more public scrutiny than a youth gone AWOL from a poorly planned boot camp.

Meanwhile, the problems associated with the training so far only goes to confirm the general suspiscion that it is nothing more that a poorly planned boot camp. The lack of proper trainers, supervision and I suspect, no agenda makes this an expensive but utterly futile exercise.

Lest I be accused of being a back seat driver, let me propose the following:

a. Reduce the number of trainees to a manageable figure e.g. 10,000 and allow the ministry to consolidate its resources like trainers etc.
b. Present a definite objective for the program - racial integration does not happen by putting kids of differrent races in one building - if not the national schools concept would suffice.
c. Present a definite statement of what national service does NOT cover - i.e. religious undertones, capital punushment etc.
d. Coduct a survey before and after the camp. Survey forms should contain questions on the program, trainers and even complains section. Ideally, the forms should be anonymous and collated by another ministry - e.g. Ministry of Youth for example - to promote transparency and prevent cover-ups. The same report should be make public.
e. Motivation for students to enroll - i.e. priority placement in local universities for trainees who achieve the minimum threshold. (P.S. This will definitely draw in the non-muslims)
f. The appointment of ex-headmasters and retired teachers, retired commercial and medical professionals to participate as trainers. How many 55 year olds are there in the program? Think of the experience we are losing out on... Also the trainer demographics should mirror our national figures.
g. The setting up of external inspectors (again from another ministry) to conduct on-site evaluation of programs.
h. The transparent disclosure of all events held at each camp for parents to monitor.
i. The implementation of 24 hour hotline for campers which reports directly to another ministry.

And the list goes on - which goes to show - if one silly blogger could come up with this, how much preparation was done by Mindef?

I am tempted to go onto gaffe no.2 but let's save it for my next posting...