Friday, May 9, 2008

Yet Another Death...

Here comes yet another death of a NS trainee. It’s sad to read about those stories every time even I don’t know the deceased. Can you imagine? Last year’s had about 12 or so trainees reported died during the training. What about those unreported? This year has been quite a few of deaths, but I not sure how many it is. It seems like NS has not been well managed by their respective camp commandos (they like to be called that way).

My brother and my cousin (they were in the same camp) just came back from theirs, but opted to be exempted from returning after the one week holiday is over. They obtained the exemption because they have been offered to study in College and Sixth Form. Can you believe when he told me that there was no water to bathe sometimes? Then they had to stand under the sun for about 2 hours, in the evening! The commando (head of camp or whatever) was considered “wise”, judging by the way that he was standing under some shade. Just try yourself, standing under the sun in the afternoon, I bet for 10 minutes maximum you cannot stay still already. Two hours? We are human, we can die from dehydration, cant we? This particular camp, some where in the neighboring state, is quite isolated from the urban area. It used to be associated with some sort of vampire story where it got its name from, if I’ not mistaken.

My mother and my aunt were worried; especially they called home to say that they wanted to come back on the next day after they reported themselves! My brother had his share of sickness during that time also; I think mostly due to deprivation of sleep, lowered immunity due to the insufficient nutrition taken but lots of Vitamin D, I am judging it based on his skin color. Wow, he was already not that fair before he went for training, now he looks like he did an entire season for the Prison Break series. I guessed if I had been there, I would be like a snake; my skin would be changing so often until I has some sort of skin disease. Now he’s back, so thank God he’s still ok. The hair will grow back, the tanned skin will become fairer and he will not be going back for NS, not risking the probability, quite a high probability if calculated (call a kid to do it, you will be surprised).

Our beloved Batu Gajah MP, Fong Po Kuan has called for the review of the program, submitting an emergency motion to the parliament. She’s done a great job, it is emergency and it should be paid attention. In my opinion, the implementers saw the big picture, thought that they would be able to have it their ways. But can they ensure all the camps around this country behave the same ideal way that they thought he camps would be? If the answer is negative, it’s time to put an end to it; no question will be asked, people will be happy, but not those who lost their loved one previously in the program. Hopefully they would be able to come to term with what had happened and move on with life.

We cannot change the past, but we can change the future...

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