Malaysia proposes reviving national service training for youth

KUALA LUMPUR - A revived national service training programme will see Malaysian youth undergo basic army training for 45 days, said Malaysian Defence Minister Mohamad Hasan on Monday.

He said this was among the proposals submitted by the special committee set up to look into reviving the programme introduced about two decades ago.

“This time around, we plan to do it in the army camps as there are many Territorial Army (Wataniah) camps that are ideal for the programme,” he said in reply to a question raised by an MP in Parliament on Monday.

The programme, introduced in 2004, randomly selected 18-year-olds for a compulsory three-month period of training.

It was halted in 2015 and reintroduced the following year, with participation to be made optional by 2019.

However, it was scrapped entirely in August 2018.

In 2021, the previous administration agreed that the defence minister would set up a committee to study the possibility of reviving the programme with a new template.

Unlike the previous programme which was more akin to a “summer camp”, Datuk Seri Mohamad said, this revived programme would be geared towards providing young people with actual army training.

Under the proposal, the army training would involve the second phase of the programme, particularly for those who have completed their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, or SPM, examination – equivalent to the O levels in Singapore.

Mr Mohamad said that under the first phase, uniformed groups in schools would be taught to prepare youth for the second phase.

He said that about 90 per cent of the camps would focus more on army training, while 10 per cent would focus more on nation-building.

He said Malaysia now has 13 Territorial Army camps, which can handle some 20,000 young people annually.

Previously, running the national service training programme cost RM500 million (S$144.8 million) a year. But this new proposal, which involves using the army camps, would bring the cost down to RM100 million, he said.

He added that the committee’s working paper to revive the programme would be presented to the ministry before it is submitted to the National Security Council for approval.

However, there is no timeframe for this process, as the minister has agreed to the suggestion that the matter be further scrutinised by a Parliamentary Special Select Committee for further input from various quarters. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK