RM4.7 billion spent on National Service
The Defence Ministry says there was no follow up on the training scheme, stressing that the programme was a success.
(Free Malaysia Today) – The question members of Parliament wanted to know was how effective is the National Service programme since RM4.7billion has been spent on it over seven years.
All they got was evasive answers from the Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Latiff Ahmad. He told the Dewan Rakyat that RM4.7 billion was spent but there was no follow up done to see how effective the programme was.
Abdul Latiff Ahmad confirmed that the government did not conduct any studies in regards to NS trainees still being involved in crimes after their programmes ended.
“No detailed studies linking the National Service (trainees) to crime have been conducted, but we will consider this in future studies.” he said.
Abdul Latiff, who is also Mersing MP, then defended the programme, and claimed that it was successful in instilling good values in NS trainees.
He said this in response to a query by Tanah Merah MP (PKR) Amran Ab Ghani, who asked about the amount of money allocated by the Defence Ministry since the NS programme was introduced.
The PKR MP had also asked if the NS programme was successful in creating an “early awareness” among youths, and if former trainees were still involved in crime.
Amran then asked if these NS camps were still getting allocations from the government.
Question of auditing
At this stage the deputy defence minister lost his cool and insulted Amran by saying: “He is deaf, but good thing (for him) that he is not mute.”
This prompted Pakatan Rakyat MPs to demand that the Mersing MP withdrew his comment, which he eventually did after being advised by Deputy Speaker Ronald Kiandee.
Abdul Latiff said that the 87 NS camps in operation were not owned by the government.
