As Malaysia restarts national service programme, can it avoid its 'on-again, off-again' history?
KUALA LUMPUR: Almost two decades ago, when Sue Haizal received the call-up to serve in Malaysia’s national service, the now 38-year-old housewife recalled being terrified as she was about to venture into the unknown.
She had heard of countless “horror stories” about the programme from her friends, and was worried that she would have a negative experience as well.
«I didn't want to go. I was terrified of ragging and was worried I wouldn't be able to endure it,” said Sue, who is from Muar in the southern state of Johor.
But the time she served in national service proved to be the opposite, she told CNA, believing it to be a “transformative experience” that fostered her personal growth.
“I did many things that I wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t gone there,” Sue said.
For the first half of her training, she was based at a camp in Endau — located in Johor’s Mersing district — before being placed at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for the remaining one-and-a-half months.
“I was an introvert and didn’t have much confidence, but I believe this improved after the national service,” she said.
Malaysia’s national service programme was first introduced in 2004, with those aged 18 and above selected randomly for a compulsory three-month training to instill the spirit of patriotism, resilience and volunteerism in the trainees.
It was then halted in 2015 due to cost cutting measures and reintroduced the following year with participation to be made optional by 2019.
But the programme was scrapped by the Pakatan Harapan government in August 2018, three months after it came to power, with the then youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman saying it had been misused for the purpose of the indoctrination of